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!<-t 6 



A Short 

History of Christianity 



By 
John Horsch. 



CLEVELAND, OHIO: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

107 UNIVERSITY ST. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN 2G 1903 

~ Copyright Entry 

0LASS <^ XXc. No. 

<C' (oil 

COPY 



\j 






Copyright, 1902, 1903, by John Horsch. 



Preface. 

An attempt has been made in this book to 
present the principal facts of church history 
from what might be termed an American point 
of view; viz., from the standpoint of those who 
laid the foundation and built the ground work 
for the Republic of the West — the persecuted 
and often misrepresented Independents, whose 
crime it was that they refused to fashion their 
faith according to the notions of the civil mag - 
istrates, or of the Romish pope, and who have 
left us a rich heritage which we are glad to 
claim. The noted church historians of Europe,, 
as a matter of course, take the view of state- 
churchism, and are, with few exceptions, in- 
clined to look upon Independentism with dis- 
favor. American historians have often, without 
further investigation, followed in their long- 
beaten path. This is, doubtless, one of the 
reasons why the people of our land have found 
it, apparently, somewhat difficult to get inter- 
ested in church history. While even an 
elementary education would be considered in- 
complete without a knowledge of the history 



iv. Preface. 

of our own country, the study of the history of 
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has been 
neglected. Yet, there is every reason to believe 
that any Christian will be the stronger for a 
knowledge of it, and, on the other hand, defi- 
ciency in this point constitutes, evidently, one 
of the principal causes why many are led 
astray by some "wind of doctrine" that may 
happen their way. The writer realizes that he 
has been strengthened in his Christian convic- 
tions, by this study, and hopes that others, also, 
may find it helpful. 

The present volume is written in a style 
which, it is hoped, will not be found more diffi- 
cult than that of the books on history, generally 
used in the public schools. Presenting the 
subject from an interdenominational view point, 
it aims to awaken an interest for the church 
and the cause of Christ, and to exert an influ- 
ence in favor of primitive Christian piety. 

Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1903. 



Table of Contents, 

INTRODUCTION .1-10 

The Jews — The heathen world — The -ful- 
ness of time. 

PERIOD I. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 

A. D. 30-160 .11-42 

Earliest history — Labors of the Apostles — 
Destruction of Jerusalem — Persecutions — 
Spread of the church — The apostolic fa- 
thers— Faith, life and practice of the Prim- 
itive Church — New Testament Scriptures. 

PERIOD II. DEVELOPMENT OF STATE- 
CHURCHISM. A. D. 160-337 ......... 43-92 

Decline of primitive power— Persecutions — 
Constan tine's dream — Beginning of state- 
churchism — The church fathers of this pe- 
riod— Montanist Reformation — Tertullian — 
The Novatianists — The Donatists — Arian- 
ism and the Council of Nice — Ebionism and 
Gnosticism — The Catacombs — Faith, life 
and practice during this period. 

PERIOD III. THE GREAT PERIOD OF 
DARKNESS. A. D. 337-1170. ..... . .93-187 

General decline — Political history of this 



vi. Table of Contents. 

period — Constantine's sons — Julian— -The 
Holy Roman Empire — Popery — The church 
fathers of this period — The Pelagian con- 
troversy — Christological controversies — 
Monasticism — Conversion of the Barbari- 
ans of northern and western Europe — Mo- 
hammedanism—A reaction against image 
worship — The great schism — The crusades 
— Bernard of Clairvaux — Arnold of Brescia 
— Faith, life and practice during this period. 

PERIOD IV. THE DAWN OP A NEW 

DAY. A. D. 1170-1519 . 138-178 

Peter Waldo — Christian piety during the 
Dark Ages — The Petrobrussiatis — The Wal- 
denses— The Catharites and Albigenses — 
Marsilius of Padua — John Wycliffe — John 
Huss and the Hussites —The Bohemian and 
Moravian Brethren — The mystics and the 
-Friends of Ood — The Brethren of the Com- 
mon^ Life— Savonarola — The decline of the 
papacy — The Inquis ition — Monasticism — 
Theological teachers of this period — The 
spreading of the Holy Scriptures — The re- 
vival of learning and the humanists — Faith, 
life and practice during this period. 

PERIOD V. THE REFORMATION. A. D. 

1519-1565 179-277 

Martin Luther — His conversion — John von 
Staupitz — Luther as a converted but unen- 
lightened Romanist — Luther and Tetzel — 



Table of Contents- vii. 

The theses controversy — The Leipzig dis- 
putation — The great reformatory testimony 
— The three greatest books of Luther — Lu- 
ther's excommunication — The new emperor 
— Philip Melanchthon— The Diet of Worms 
Luther on the Wartburg — The beginning of 
practical reformation — Luther's return to 
Wittenberg — Romanism restored in Witten- 
berg — The Zwickau Prophets— Carlstadt's 
later career — Further changes in Witten- 
berg — Thomas Muenzer and the Peasant's 
War — A new period in the Lutheran Refor- 
mation — The teachings and practice of the 
new church — To what extent a reformation 
took place — Henry VIII., of England — 
Erasmus— Luther's marriage — His Liter- 
ary labors — The Diet of Speier— Protestants 
— Ulrich Zwingli — The Swiss Reformation 
— The Anabaptist movement — Spread of 
Anabaptists — Balthasar Hubmeier — His 
writings— Other Anabaptist leaders — Mis- 
representations — Persecutions of Anabap- 
tists — The decree of Speier — The Marburg 
conference — Augsburg Confession — War in 
Switzerland — Zwingli 's death — The land-, 
grave's bigamy — Luther's last years — The 
Leipzig Interim---The Muensterite uproar 
— Menno Simons and the Mennonites — The 
Moravian Anabaptists — The Schwenkfeld- 
ians — The Reformation in Switzerland — 



viii. Table of Contents. 

John Calvin — The Heidelberg Catechism — 
The Reformation in Scotland — John Knox — 
The Netherlands — The Scandinavian coun- 
tries—Prance — The Huguenots — Italy and 
Spain. 

PERIOD VI. CATHOLIC AND PROTEST- 
ANT STATE CHURCHES AFTER THE 
REFORMATION. A. D. 1565-1700 . . . 278-291 
The Counter Reformation — The Jesuits — 
Conditions in Protestant countries — The 
Thirty Years' War— Pietism— The English 
Independents — The Congregationalists — 
The Baptists — The Quakers — Arminianism 
— King James 1 rersion of the Bible — The 
Westminster Confession — The Puritan Rev- 
olution. 

PERIOD VII. INDEPENDENTISM IN THE 
ASCENDENCY. After A. D. 1700 ... . 292-304 
Freedom of conscience — The Huguenots— 
Ernst Christopher Hochmann — The Dunk - 
ards — Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians 
— John Wesley and the Methodists — The 
United Brethren — The Christians — The 
Evangelical Association — The Disciples of 
Christ — The Mormons — The Unitarians — 
Missionary and Bible Societies — Modern 
liberalism — Religious statistics of the Un- 
ited States. 



Introduction. 

The purpose of this book is to give in as 
short and concise form as possible the his- 
tory of practical Christian piety rather than 
of the professedly Christian organizations and 
movements. A history of the latter would 
necessarily include much that is Christian in 
name only. The subject matter of a history of 
Christianity is what Christ, during the centu- 
ries of the present cispensation, has done 
through the believers who have permitted 
Him to enter into their lives, giving only inci- 
dental attention to what the enemy has succeed- 
ed to do under the cloak of Christianity. 

There are a few organizations, among them 
the Roman Catholic Church, who put forth the 
claim that the story of Christianity is identi- 
cal with their own history. If, however, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, were 
written about Romanism, the picture would be 
a sad one and would resemble the "harlot" of 
the Revelation far more than the bride of Christ. 
Yet the fact remains that there have been true 
Christians, many of t h em, in the Roman Catho- 
lic Church. 



2 History of Christianity. 

Is Christianity merely ''One of the Great 
Religions of the World"? 

Religion may be said to be a natural property 
of man. To be a Christian, however, means more 
than to be religious. Man is sinful by nature 
and sin is enmity against God. There is no need 
of man so great as the need of salvation. Relig- 
ious observance cannot bring salvation, neither 
can law or principle. Salvation is possible on- 
ly through the personal Christ. Reader, if you 
are a Christian, you have, in all probability, be- 
fore you found the divine life and peace through 
faith in Christ, endeavored to get right with God 
by self -effort, by keeping laws and precepts, but 
you have found that life does not come in that 
way. Now, the religious heathen who seeks God 
is, at best, where you were then. A form of 
Christian religion, even without the living Christ 
and the power of the Holy Ghost, is, as far as 
salvation is concerned, of no more benefit than 
the religions of the world. Christianity is more 
than religion, it is life. The vast difference 
between Christianity and "the great religions 
of the world" is apparent. 

*That man by nature is in a sinful state is not only- 
taught in the Scriptures; it is confirmed by experience 
and great philosophers, such as Kant, "the king 
of thinkers'' have made this principle a part of their 
system. 



Introduction. 3 

The Jews. 

In choosing and calling Israel to be the cove* 
nant people of the Old dispensation God's pur- 
pose was to bless the whole world (Gen. 28: 14). 
There is no partiality with God. It was neces- 
sary that a people should be called whose office 
it should be to keep before the world the fact 
that a redeemer was to come. The reason why 
God's choice fell upon Abraham and his seed is 
obvious. There was only one Abraham among 
mankind. Not only was he the ' 'friend of God," 
but it was he of whom it could be said, "I know 
that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him that they shall keep the way of 
the Lord'' (Gen. 18. 19). No other nation was 
favored by God as Israel, but the favors were 
not bestowed on them for there own sake only. 
When they failed to be faithful to their calling, 
when they fell and even rejected the Messiah, 
whose heralds they were to become, no nation 
was so punished as Israel. 

After the Babylonish captivity the Jews w$re 
scattered all over the world. Outside of the 
provinces of Judea and Galilee in Palestine 
which w r ere inhabited exclusively by Jews, they 
were most numerous in Egypt. It was in Egypt 
that the Old Testament Scriptures were first 
translated from the Hebrew into the Greek lan- 
guage, Hebrew having among many of the Jfew& 



4 History of Christianity. 

of the dispersion ceased to be a living tongue. 
This Greek version of the Old Testament, called 
fehe Septuagint (i. e. Seventy, since according to 
tradition it was the work of seventy learned Rab- 
bis) is still extant. At the time of our Lord it 
was the version of the people in Palestine. 
The quotations of the Old Testament found in 
the New Testament Scriptures are nearly all 
according to the Septuagint version. 

In the year 63 B. C. Palestine was made a 
part of the Roman World Empire, the country 
having been conquered by the Romans under 
Pompey. Seeing themselves hopelessly subdued 
by a powerful enemy the Jewish people longed 
for the advent of the Messiah. In their Messian- 
ic expectations, however, they were, with some 
exceptions, such as Mary, Simeon and Anna, and 
the parents of John the Baptist, not aware of 
the need cf a redeemer from sin. That all men 
are sinful and in need of salvation they found 
difficult to believe. Self righteous, as they were, 
the} had kept up a form of godliness, but 
utterly denied the power thereof. 

The strictest Jewish sect were the Pharisees, 
who not only kept the ceremonial law as con- 
tained in the Holy Scriptures, but insisted on 
the observation of the "traditions of the elders" 
as well. "Straining at a gnat and swallowing 
a earner' (Matt, 23: 24) some of them, while they 
readily gave their consent ' 'to crucify the Lord 



Introduction. 5 

of glory" held it to be wrong to eat an egg that 
had been laid on a Sabbath day. The Sadducees 
were liberalists and unbelievers. A third sect, the 
Essenees, having a small number of adherents, 
is not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. The 
proselytes, or converts from heathenism were of 
two classes, namely those who fully and those 
who only partially adopted the Jewish religion. 
The former who were called "proselytes of 
righteousness," had adopted circumcision and 
united with the Jewish church, while the latter, 
the "proselytes of the gate, " or fearers of God 
as they are called in the New Testament and by 
Josephus, accepted the deeper spiritual truths 
of the Old Testament but did not acknowledge 
the ceremonial law, and, being uncircumcised, 
were still counted unclean. Of the latter class 
of proselytes were Naaman, the Syrian (2 Kings 
5: 12), the centurion of Capernaum (Luke 7), Cor- 
nelius, Lydia, and Timothy. 

Judaism with its typical worship and its proph- 
ecy, was destined to furnish the historic ground- 
work for Christianity; in so far the purpose of 
God was accomplished, in spite of the carnality 
of the Jews. On the other hand, as far as the ful- 
fillment of their high calling was dependent on 
their own faithfulness, they, as a nation, failed 
utterly. What a contrast there was between 
Israel as Gcd had intended that it should be and 
Israel as it actually was. 



6 History of Christianity. 

The Heathen World- 

The foremost nations of the heathen world, at 
the beginning of the Christian era, were 
the Greeks and the Romans. Greece, the little 
country in the south of Europe, surpassed all 
other nations in secular wisdom. The master- 
pieces of Greek literature and art are to this day 
studied as models in our institutions of higher 
learning. In the two vital points however the 
Greeks were, in spite of all their cultur, sadly 
deficient, namely in morals and religion. Social 
purity was unknown among them. Dens of vice 
were frequented by the best of them, such as 
Socrates, and it did not so much as occur to 
them that there was any wrong in it. Among 
every ten inhabitants of Greece were seven or 
more slaves, and "they were in a much worse 
state than any cattle whatsoever. ' ' As to 
temperance it was a rule of good conduct that 
a man should indulge in intoxicants only so far 
that he would be able to walk home when a 
slave, walking ahead with a lantern, showed 
him the way. 

Concerning religion the Greeks had childish 
notions. Their gods were a merry set of men 
and women who showed all the weaknesses and 
vices of the Grecian character. They were be- 
lieved to cheat each other and engage in boist- 
erous quarrelling. One of them, unable, as he 
was, to walk gracefully, provokes the other 



Introduction. 7 

gods to uproarious laughter. By their marri- 
ages they were involved in prepetual jealousies 
and quarrels. They were believed to be full 
of envy, hatred, and lust, and to provoke each 
other to lying and cruelty, perjury and adul- 
tery. 

The Roman gods were copied from the gods 
of Greece, as also the literature and art of 
the Romans were merely imitations of Grecian 
models. For a description of the moral and 
religious state of heathenism in that age see 
Rom. I: 21-32. 

After Alexander the Great, a Greek or more 
correctly a Macedonian, in the fourth century 
B. C. had conquered the world, Greek had be- 
come the universal language. For the spread- 
ing of the Gospel it was of great moment that 
o many countries were united in the use of 
one tongue. 

The assertion is sometimes made that Greek 
philosophy prepared the world for the reception 
of Christianity. It is a fact that Christian theo- 
logians of later centuries have made Greek 
philosophy, particulary the systems of Plato and 
Aristotle, the ground work of their theology. 
This, however, has been far from proving a 
source of strength to the Christian church. 
Quite the contrary is true. The more attention 
those who were called to be ambassadors in 
Christ's stead gave to Plato and other heathen 



8 History of Christianity. 

teachers, the farther was the Word of God put 
aside and the greater was the triumph of the 
enemy. It was only when men came bac i to 
Christ and the unadulterated Word of God that 
reformations were accomplished. 

"The fullness of time." 

* 'When the fullness of time was come, God sent 
his Son" (Gal. 4: 4). The meaning of these 
words of Scripture is not simply that Christ ap- 
peared at the time indicated by prophecy.* The 
fact that soon after the close of the apostolic 
period various fatal errors found their way into 
the church and within a few hucdred years the 
great state church had become corrupted by hea- 
thenish principles and practices confirms the 
thought that the sending of Christ into the world 
took place in the earliest possible period of 
time. 

*It should be borne in mind that prophecy was given by 
God for the sake of its fulfillment, rather than the latter 
for the sake of prophecy. If historical facts foretold 
by prophecy would have come to pass in a way differing 
from that in which they have passed into history, God 
would have shown them to His prophets in just that way. 
If history would have been different, prophecy would 
have been different. God in his infinite wisdom knew 
from the beginning the proper time for sending the Christ 
into the world. The fact that He knows the future as 
well as the past does not in any wise contradict the grand 
truth that man is a free agent. God rules the world with- 



Introduction. 9 

Jesus of Nazareth, the center of all history- 
was not a man great in the eyes of the world. 
During the three years of his public ministry 
"he went about doing good," preaching the gos- 
pel of the kingdom and teaching a system of 
morals such as the wisest of the men of the world 
h?„d never dreamed of. The essence of the mor- 
al teaching of our Lord is love to all men, even 
to enemies. By his humble life of service and by 
laying down his life for mankind he has shown 
what He meant by "love." Jesus Christ lived 
out to perfection the principles which He taught. 
He is the only sinless and perfect example for 
man. Yet it is not as a teacher of morals that 
He has saved the world; it is by the propitiation 
which He made for the sins of the world on Cal- 
vary, through which He became * 'the Mediator of 
the New Testament." After three days He rose 
triumphantly from the grave, He was taken up 
to heaven and, according to the promise He sent 
the Holy Ghost. It is the office of the Holy 

out interfering in the least with the free will of man as to 
his attitude toward God. It is the glory of man that he 
has been created free and that issues of immense import- 
ance must be decided by him. Even his Maker can not 
compel man to love Him. Love by the way, is necessa- 
rily spontaneous. It can never come by compulsion, if it 
could, we may believe that God would make even Satan 
love Him. By his unspeakable love through Jesus 
Christ God in a sense compels man to love Him. He who 
refuses to be compelled by love can not be saved. 



10 History of Christianity. 

Spirit to get men to accept the salvation which 
has been wrought, and to do miracles of triumph 
for the cause of Christ wherever believers will 
yield themselves to Him so that He can free them 
from self and sin, and work through them. The 
story of Christianity is the story of how and to 
what extent men have yielded themselves to the 
Holy Ghost, and it is to that extent that the 
cause of Christ on earth has triumphed. 



The Primitive Church. 

A. D. 30-160. 

Jesus, on taking leave of the disciples, gave 
them a twofold commission as to the work to 
which they had been called. They were to tar- 
ry in Jerusalem to be endued with power from 
on high, and should then go into all the world 
making disciples of all nations. Those humble 
Galilean fishermen, unlearned as they were — 
they had what was then a good common school 
education — and without prestige, were utterly 
unable to accomplish the work which had been 
entrusted to them. They were fully aware of 
this, and therefore ' 'continued with one accord in 
prayer and supplication". It was then that "the 
promise of the Father was sent upon them". 
Having been ' 'filled with the Holy Ghost' ' they 
began with great power and courage ' 'to preach 
repentance and remission of sins in His name 
among all nations'' ( Luke 24:47. ). Peter's first 
sermon had a wonderful effect, the Holy Spirit 
working on the hearts of the hearers as well as 
giving the message through Peter. Three thou- 
sand souls were on that day added to the num- 



12 History of Christianity. 

ber of the believers. It was the birthday of the 
Christian church. And not only on the day of 
Pentecost was the power of the Spirit manifested 
but during the whole of the apostolic period. 
The holy walk and entire consecration of 
the disciples removed all obstacles to the 
working of the Holy Ghost. It was a time 
of triumph for the cause of Christ such as has 
never since been realized. 

The number of the believers increased daily. 
Soon the congregation in Jerusalem numbered 
five thousand souls. Among the elders of the 
congregation James the brother of the Lord (the 
author of the Epistle of James) was the most 
prominent. Seven deacons had been appointed 
to care for the poor and the sick. The devot- 
ional meetings were held in private houses, but 
the believers, following the example of the 
Master, went daily into the Temple to teach and 
bear testimony to the truth of the Gospel. They 
truly felt themselves as brethren and sisters, 
members of one body under one head, Jesus 
Christ. Their ''unfeigned love of the brethren" 
expressed itself in a voluntary community of 
goods as w r ell as in their daily meetings for pray- 
er, edification and the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper. That "a sinner could not stand in the 
congregation of the righteous" is attested by the 
exposure and punishment of Ananias and Sap- 
phira. 



The Primitive Church. 13 

The followers of Jesus of Nazareth had soon 
to encounter persecution from the Jews. Ste- 
phen, one of the seven deacons, was the first to 
seal his testimony of Jesus Christ with his blood. 
In consequence of the persecution the disciples 
were scattered over all Palestine. "They went 
everywhere preaching the word" and spreading 
the tidings of salvation. One of the Twelve, 
James, the brother of John was beheaded by 
Herod Agrippa in the year 44. About the same 
time Peter also was imprisoned and condemned 
to death, but was miraculously liberated and 
seems henceforth to have led the life of a 
traveling missionary. The conversion of Cor- 
nelius of Caesarea opened the way for mission- 
ary work among the gentiles. 

The year 35 is memorable for the conversion 
of Saul of Tarsus. Saul had been a pupil of the 
noted Jewish teacher Gamaliel of Jerusalem. 
He had not only attained a good knowledge of 
the law as the other apostles, but was in some 
measure acquainted with Greek literature; it 
should however be observed that it was not in 
his learning where the secret of his power and 
success lay. Like most of the Jewish teachers 
of the law, he followed a trade for his support, 
having chosen that of a tentmaker. 

When the Lord appeard to the persecuting 
Pharisee Saul, and showed him the error of his 
way, Saul experienced a thorough conversion. 



1-4 History of Christianity 

His question was henceforth, '• Lord, what will 
thou have me to do?". Having made a public 
confession of his iaith'f he straightway preached 
Christ in the Synagogues. " From that time on 
it was as if Paul had been put out of the way 
and crucified with Christ; the only thing in 
which he, tne "bondservant of Christ," hence- 
forth rejoiced, was to be engaged in the work 
of his Lord, it was no longer a matter of 
consequence to him how he fared or what he 
suffered in the service of the Master, his whole 
concern was that the will of the Lord be done, 
His name be glorified and souls be brought to a 
saving knowledge of the truth; it was no longer 
Paul that lived, but Christ lived in him. 

The first organized church, besides that of 
Jerusalem, which is mentioned in the Acts of 
the apostles is the church in the city of Antioch 
in Syria. It was here that the disciples were 
first called Christians, and here Paul and 
Barnabas were ordained " to the work wher- 
unto God had called them." Antioch was the 
starting point of the three great missionary 
journeys of Paul. On the first of these journeys 
( A. D. 45-50 ) the apostle was accompanied by 
Barnabas and Mark. They went by way of the 
island of Cyprus to Asia Minor the native land 
of Paul, seeing many turn to God through their 
labors and founding churches in various places. 

The first synod of the Christian church was 



The Primitive Church. 15 

held in the year 50 in Jerusalem, for the 
purpose of settling the question as to the valid- 
ity of the ceremonial law under the new dispen- 
sation. Many of the converts from Judaism, 
particulary those of Jerusalem had continued to 
observe the Mosaic law. Their object was in- 
deed not to be saved by the law, they under- 
stood full well that salvation comes through 
faith in Christ; they kept the law as a matter of 
discipline. There arose however in Jerusalem 
a small party who contended that salvation 
comes through the law. In the words of Paul they 
were "false brethren unawares brought in" viz, 
into the church ( Gal. 2: 4 ), they were baptized 
Pharisees. Some of them came to Antioch and 
taught the brethren, "Except ye becirumcised 
after the manner of Moses, ye can not be saved' ' 
(Acts 15. 1.) It became evident that it was 
necessary for the church as a whole to settle 
this question. A synod was consequently held 
in Jerusalem and after much discussion it was 
decided, not only that there is no salvation in 
keeping the ceremonial law but that the keeping 
of it was even not required for membership in 
the church, as was the observation of the 
Christian ordinances. It was expressly stated 
that those who observed the precepts of the law 
fully believed the truth of the Gospel that sal- 
vation comes * 'through the grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ" (Acts 15: 11.) 



16 History of Christianity. 

This important question having been settled 
Paul undertook another missionary journey in 
the year 51. Accompanied by Silas, and later by 
Timothy he travelled through Syria and Asia 
Minor, visiting the places in which he had pre- 
viously labored, "confirming the churches' ' 
and establishing new congregations. In answer 
to the Macedonian cry "Come over and help 
us" he crossed over from Troas in Asia Minor 
to Macedonia in Europe. He preached the Gos- 
pel with great success in Philippi, Thessalonica 
Berea and Athens, founding churches in all 
these places. In Corinth, a large and wicked city 
he labored for eighteen months and wrote the 
two Epistles to the Thessalonians. In the 
spring or early summer of the year 54 he return- 
ed by way of Ephesus and Jerusalem to Antioch. 

After a short stay in Antioch Paul started to- 
wards the close of the year 54 on his third mis- 
sionary tour. He went to Ephesus in Asia 
Minor, and for three years made this city the 
center of his missionary work. Having then in 
the year 57 visited the churches in Macedonia 
and Greece, he returned, after a prolonged stay 
in Corinth, to Jerusalem in the spring of the 
year 58. During this period he wrote the Epist- 
les to the Galatians, Corinthians and Romans. 

Having arrived in Jerusalem an uproar was 
raised against him by some fanatical Jews who 
charged him with profaning the Temple. He was, 



The Primitive Church. 17 

however, snatched out of the hands of the mob 
by Claudius Lysias, a Roman tribune, and sent 
a prisoner to Caesarea, the Roman capital of 
Palestine. Under the governor Felix, the suc- 
cessor of Pontius Pilate, he was confined for 
two whole years (58-60). Since he had appealed 
to the Emperor, the governor Festus sent him 
in the year 60 to Rome. In the month of March 
61 he, accompanied by a few faithful compan- 
ions, reached Rome, the capital of the ancient 
world. 

Great was the splendor of ancient Rome; her 
palaces, temples and theatres were famous for 
their magnificence. Far more, however, than in 
the beauty of the city was Paul interested in 
the men and women that walked the streets of 
Rome. What an awful picture of sin and god- 
lessness did the city of Rome present to him. 
If through his service one of the doomed men 
could be made a temple of the Holy Ghost — 
what did Paul care about the temples of 
stone and marble. He entered the city with the 
firm resolution that, by the grace of God, he 
would do everything in his power to make the 
light of the Gospel shine in Rome. 

For two years Paul was permitted to live in 
his own hired house in Rome. It had been de- 
cided by the authorities that he should at all 
times be accompanied by a soldier who was 
chained to him. Many were taught the way of 



18 History of Christianity. 

salvation by the apostle in that great city. 
He died the death of a martyr, being behead- 
ed under Nero (64 or 67). In his captivity he wrote 
the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, Phil- 
emon and Philippians, the first Epistle to 
Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and last of all, on 
the eve of martyrdom, the second Epistle to 
Timothy. 

The life of the apostle Paul was one of diffi- 
culties and persecution, of incessant labor and 
self-denial, yet we may believe that he was one 
of the happiest of men. When in Philippi he 
had been scourged and cast into prison, he was 
heard to sing the praises of God at midnight. 
Much did he suffer for the sake of the Gospel, 
often was he in great danger of life, often heat- 
ed and imprisoned by Jews and Gentiles, yet he 
says, "None of these things move me, neither 
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
finish my course with joy, and the ministry 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 
20: 24). There are today thousands who covet 
the power which Paul had, but shrink from the 
self denial and consecration in which Paul 
gloried. 

The most prominent and active of the apostles, 
besides Paul, were Peter and John. In the year 
after the apostolic council (51) we find Peter in 
Antioch (Gal. 2: 11). Later, accompanied by his 
wife, he was engaged in missionary travel (1 Cor. 



The Primitive Church. 19 

9: 5). For a time he labored in the old (or the 
new ?) Babylon. He suffered martyrdom by cru- 
cifixion in Rome under the Neronian persecution. 
The story of a twenty-five years episcopate of 
Peter in Rome is an invention of later centuries. 
His martyrdom by crucifixion was predicted by 
our Lord (John 21: 18, 19). 

Little is known of the earlier labors of the 
apostle John. After Paul had left Ephesus and 
the great missionary field of Asia Minor, John 
stepped in to fill the vacancy. With some inter- 
ruption, when he was imprisoned and banished 
to Patmos, he spent the rest of the his long life 
in Asia Minor. He died in Ephesus at an ex- 
treme old age, during the reign of Trajan which 
began in 98. la his last days he was wont to be 
carried to the meeting place of the church where 
again and again he repeated the exhortation* 
"Little children, love one another." 

Nothing definite is know T n concerning the his- 
tory and labors of the other apostles, although, 
tradition (after the fourth century) has various 
accounts concerning their fields of activity.. 
James, the brother of the Lord (not of the 
Twelve) was stoned in Jerusalem in the year 63. 
After his death Symeon, also a kinsman of Jesus 
according to the flesh, seems to have hem. the 
most influential of the presbyters of conigitega,- 
tion in Jerusalem. 



W History of Christianity. 

It appears that John is the only one of the 
twelve apostles who survived the awful tragedy 
of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans 
in the year 70. Our Lord had warned Israel that 
notwithstanding the form of religion which they 
had kept up, they were ripe for judgment; he 
predicted that Jerusalem should be destroyed 
(Luke 19: 43). After the Jews had decided 
^against Jesus of Nazareth, things went from bad 
vto worse. The Roman governor Gessius Florus 
was, moreover, a wicked tyrant who, in the 
"words of Josephus, was placed as a hangman over 
evil-doers. A rebellion broke out in 66, but the 
Jews were not at peace among themselves, and 
soon a terrible civil war was raging in Palestine, 
the Zealots or radicals finally gaining the upper 
hand. The army which the Roman government 
sent against Jerusalem, the principal and well 
nigh only stronghold of the Jews, was found in- 
adequate for an effectual siege, and was even 
forced to retreat. It was then that the Chris- 
tians, remembering the warning of the Lord 
(Luke 21: 20), fled from the city. Herod Agrip- 
pa, the Tetrarch, assigned them the town of 
Pella on the east side of Jordan as a place of re- 
fuge. 

The Roman general Vespasian finally under- 
took the prosecution of the Jewish war. He 
conquered Galilee, and when in 69 he had been 
elected Emperor, his sou Titus, with eighty 



The Primitive Church. 21 

thousand trained soldiers, laid siege to Jerusa- 
lem. The siege began in April 70, immediately- 
after the passover, when Jerusalem was filled 
with strangers. The Zealots threatened to strike 
down every one who spoke of surrender, some 
of them contending that the city and temple 
could never be taken by the enemy and that, at 
the greatest extremity the Messiah would come 
to their rescue. Hunger soon began to rage in 
the overcrowded city. Thousands were swept 
away daily. So terrible became the famine that 
even human flesh was devoured, and one mother 
killed her infant son to prolong her own life. 
Civil war had again broken out within the walls 
of the city. The castle of Antonia was finally 
surprised and taken by the Romans in the month 
of July. One part of the city after another was 
conquered, although the Jews fought with un- 
precedented desperation. The temple was 
burned by the infuriated soldiers, August 10, in 
spite of the efforts of Titus to save the building. 
On the seventh day of September the upper city 
was taken and the whole of the city was then 
burned and razed to the ground. The men were 
all killed in the horrible butchery which ensued, 
and 97,000 youths were sold into slavery; 1 100,- 
000 persons are said to have perished during the 
siege. Josephus, the most learned Jew of the 
time, who however proved a traitor to his peo- 
ple, has recorded in detail the story of the great 



$f History of Christianity. 

Jewish war in his famous work on that subject. 

The fall of Jerusalem and with it the end of 
the Jewish state and of Jewish worship was not 
without a beneficial effect on the Christian 
church. Heretofore Christianity had by many 
been looked upon as the belief of merely a Jew- 
ish sect, now it proved to be in no manner de- 
pendent on Judaism. Jerusalem had, to the 
mind of many, been the centre and, in a sense, 
the head-quarters of the Christian church. 
Now it became evident that Christianity could 
exist and flourish without a visible centre, or a 
holy city. 

Persecution of the Christian church by the 
Jews was now at an end, but persecution by the 
heathen empire of Rome had begun under Nero, 
a number of years previously. 

The Neronian persecution, in 64, was not a 
religious persecution in the strict sense. When 
in July of that year the city of Rome had been 
well-nigh destroyed by fire, Nero, one of the vil- 
est of tyrants, laid the responsibility for the con- 
flagration on the Christians, whose belief was 
indeed unpopular with the multitude. This he 
did in order to divert from himself the suspicion 
to incendiarism, and to secure new victims for 
his diabolic cruelty. A number of Christians 
were crucified, others cast before wild beasts, 
and many were covered with pitch and at night 
were lighted and burned as torches for the 



The Primitive Church. 28 

amusements of that imperial monster and the 
Roman populace. The apostles Paul and Peter 
suffered martyrdom in this persecution. 

Emperor Domitian (81-96) was the first to treat 
Christianity as a crime against the state. Many 
were condemned to death. The Christians, re- 
fusing to sacrifice to the gods, were accused as 
atheists. Their indifference to politics and their 
frequent meetings which were often held at 
evening aroused the suspicion that they were 
disloyal to the government. Since Jesus had 
been spoken of as their king, Domitian, fearing 
for his throne, gave orders that the surviving 
descendants of the house of David should be de- 
stroyed. Two kinsmen of Jesus, grandsons of 
Judas, "the brother of the Lord," were brought 
from Jerusalem to Rome; but seeing their pov- 
erty and the unmistakable evidence of hard lab- 
or on their hands, and being told that the king- 
dom of Christ was not of this world, he ordered 
them to be released. 

Under emperor Trajan (98-117) Christianity 
was forbidden by law. Among the martyrs of 
that time was the aged bishop Symeon of Jeru- 
salem w r ho was accused by fanatical Jews, and 
crucified in the year 107. Persecution, although 
less severe, continued under Hadrian (117-137) 
and Antonius Pius (137-161). 

During the reign of Hadrian there was anoth- 
er Jewish war. A pseudo-messiah who called 



2Jf History of Christianity. 

himself Bar-Cochba (son of the stars), but was 
afterwards called the Bar-Cosiba (son of false- 
hoods), incited a powerful rebellion of the Jews. 
He was defeated by a large Roman army, in 135. 
Immense numbers of Jews perished during this 
insurrection, or were sold into slavery, nearly 
all Palestine was laid waste, Jerusalem was 
again destroyed, and the Jews forbidden under 
penalty of death to visit the site of their former 
holy city. Cruel Hadrian permitted them to be- 
hold and bewail it from a distance only on the 
anniversary of its destruction. Many Palestin- 
ian Christians perished with the Jews in this 
war, by both the hand of Bar-Cochba and the 
Romans. 

The spreading of the Gospel was promoted, 
rather than hindered, by persecution. Tertul- 
lian's famous saying, that the blood of the 
martyrs is the seed of Christianity, has been ful- 
ly verified. In spite of the fact that to become 
a Christian meant to undergo persecution in var- 
ious ways, and that Christianity gave not the 
slightest favor to the corrupt natural inclina- 
tions, the church of Jesus Christ gained contin- 
ually in numbers and influence. Roman heath- 
enism was moreover in process of inevitable de- 
cay, it had outlived itself. The change wrought 
by the Gospel in the lives of those who accepted 
it was astonishing. Christianity bore the un- 
mistakable seal of truth and divinity. 



The Primitive Church. 25 

As early as the year 160 the Christian church 
had not only taken a firm foothold in Syria, Me- 
sopotamia, Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia and 
Italy, but there were congregations of believers 
in other countries of southern Europe as well as 
in Egypt and throughout northern Africa. 
Some of the most notable teachers and leaders 
of the post-apostolic period were the following: 

Clement of Rome, probably the same person 
who is mentioned by Paul, Phil. 4: 3, was to- 
ward the end of the first century one of the pres- 
byters of the congregation in Rome. We have 
from him an interesting epistle to which we 
shall have occasion to refer later. 

Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the apostle 
John, presided in the first half of the second 
century as presbyter-bishop over the church of 
Smyrna in Asia Minor. He died in Rome at the 
stake, in 155 having steadfastly refused to deny 
his King and Savior whom, in his own words, 
he had served six and eighty-years and from 
whom he had experienced nothing but mercy. 
While standing at the stake, with his hands tied 
to the back, he spoke this prayer, which is 
quoted here, since it is of service in forming an 
opinion of this venerable man of God: "Lord 
God Almighty, Father of Thy beloved and bless- 
ed Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we have 
received the grace of knowing thee; God of an- 
gels and powers, and the whole creation, and of 



26 History of Christianity. 

the whole race of the righteous who live in Thy 
presence; I bless thee for deigning me worthy 
of this day and this hour that I may be among 
Thy martyrs and drink of the cup of my Lord 
Jesus Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal 
life of soul and body in the incorruption of the 
Holy Spirit. Receive me this day into Thy pres- 
ence together with them, as a fair and accepta- 
ble sacrifice prepared for Thyself in fulfillment 
of Thy promise, O true and faithful God. 
Wherefore I praise Thee for all Thy mercies, I 
bless Thee, I glorify Thee, through the eternal 
High-Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with 
whom to Thyself and the Holy Spirit be glory 
both now and forever. Amen. ' ' We have an im- 
portant epistle from Polycarp, addressed to the 
church in Philippi. 

Ignatius of Antioch was, at the beginning of 
the second century, bishop of the church of An- 
tioch in Syria. He was condemned to death, car- 
ried to Rome and thrown before the lions of the 
amphitheatre. We have a number of letters 
from him also. 

Papias, a friend of Polycarp, and probably a 
disciple of John, was bishop of the church in 
Hierapolis in Phrygia, Asia Minor. According 
to ancient tradition he suffered martyrdom in 
Pergamon. Papias is the author of a valuable 
work, the ' 'Explanation of the Lord's discours- 
es," a part of which is preserved to the present 
time. 



The Primitive Church, 27 

'The above are generally called the apostolic 
fathers, although the term post-apostolic would 
be more appropriate. Beside their extant writ- 
ings we have a number of other Christian books, 
.or, more correctly speaking tracts, of that peri- 
od. The following particularly deserve mention: 
The so-called Teaching of the twelve Apostles, 
an anonymous tract of the first half of the sec- 
ond century, containing various rules of practi- 
cal life and discipline. — "The Shepherd of Her- 
mas," the oldest Christian allegory, written 
about the same time as the above, has sometimes 
been compared with Bunyan's Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress although inferior to it in merit. — An ano- 
nymous letter, called the epistle of Barnabas, 
written before the year 125. 

Faith, Life, and Practice of the Primitive Church. 

The central theme of the teaching and preach- 
ing of the Apostles was Jesus Christ, the God- 
man, the crucified and risen one. It was taught 
with great emphasis that salvation is possible 
only through Him, and that no man can be saved 
by self-effort or by mere keeping the law. The 
condition of salvation — i. e. of regeneration, the 
beginning of the new life — is faith in Christ. 
Saving faith is a necessary prerequisite for a 
holy life. An attempted holy life before the ex- 
perience of regeneration results in self righteous- 
ness which is inseparable from the great princi- 



28 History of Christianity. 

pie of sin — pride. It is through pride that the 
likeness of God in man is changed into the image 
of Satan; and yet in the non-christian religious 
systems pride is not even considered sin. This 
most abominable of vices receives its death blow 
at the foot of the cross. For a man to come to & 
realization of what sin — his sin — has done, and 
what was required to make salvation from it pos- 
sible, to realize the ' 'exceeding sinfulness of 
sin" and his own helplessness, to acknowledge 
his bankruptcy before God, to become willing to' 
take the way in which even the prostitute and 
the saloon-keeper may come and be saved — this 
is the beginning of the end of pride, and the 
birth-hour of true humility, the most funda- 
mental of Christian graces. 

In apostolic preaching ■ 'repentance toward 
God' ' precedes ' 'faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. ' ' 
Saving faith is always preceded by repentance. 
Having been convicted of sin, to turn away from 
it, is repentance. He who has no desire to get 
rid of sin, i. e. of enmity against God, cannot 
have saving faith. The principal intent of sal- 
vation is not to make man an heir of heaven, but 
to make him free from sin and bring him into fel- 
lowship with God. The faith which brings the 
divine life — regeneration — is a simple thing, and 
it is the same kind of faith which prompts a be- 
liever to "tarry to be filled with the Spirit," but 
it must be borne in mind that the purpose of all 



The Primitive Church. 29 

this is to be made free from sin and to become a 
servant of Jesus Christ. The apostles preached 
Christ as him who "will save his people from 
their sins." 

The doctrine of justification by faith, then, as 
taught by the Apostles, has in no wise a tenden- 
cy to make men careless in their walk. The 
notion that believers need pay but little attention 
to their walk and conversation is thoroughly an- 
ti-biblical. The fact is that more than half of 
the New Testament writings consist of instruc- 
tions and admonition as to how believers should 
walk. Although ceasing from sin cannot bring 
salvation and holiness in the sight of God, yet 
committing sin will separate man from God and 
ultimately condemn him; hence the necessity of 
living up to the precepts of God's word. The 
very purpose of Christianity is frustrated if men, 
unwilling to take the cross of self-denial and 
follow Jesus, persist in sin. 

In studying the history of primitive Chris- 
tianity, we are impressed with the fact that the 
«arly Christians were in dead earnest in serving 
the Lord and doing his will. He who was not 
fully resolved to break with sin and the world 
would not unite with the church in that age, for 
not only was such a step decidedly unpopular 
with the multitude, but indulgence in worldli- 
tiess and open sin was not tolerated in mem- 
bers of the church. To become a Christian 



30 History of Christianity. 

meant henceforth to live a life of consecration 
to God. There was, consequently, an easily 
distinguishable line between the Christians and 
the unsaved; there was a strict separation of the 
church from the world. The primitive church 
is distinguished for rigid discipline. Not only 
was discipline enforced in the case of gross sin,, 
but also of such transgressions as attendance at 
a theatre, and other forms of worldliness. While 
indulgence in sin and worldliness is the great 
cause of weakness in the church of Christ, con- 
secration of life in consistency with the Gospel, 
on the other hand, makes the church a power 
that is irresistible. Never was this truth more 
pointedly illustrated than in the apostolic 
church. 

The apostles preached the word wherever op- 
portunity presented, in the streets, on the sea- 
side, in caves, in deserts, and in the homes of the 
believers. Christian houses of worship were 
not in existence in the apostolic age and indeed 
not during the first two centuries of the Chris- 
tian era. What a contrast between the simple 
order of worship in the primitive days of Chris- 
tendom, and the spiritless pomp of ritualism 
which is so eminently fitted to make men con- 
tented with a form of religion when they ought 
to have Christ and his salvation. Traces of the 
celebration of the Lord's day instead of the 
Jewish Sabbath are found in the New Testa- 



The Primitive Church. SI 

merit, while there is historic proof that in the 
second century the Lord's day was generally 
kept. 

The early Christians fully understood it to be 
their business to bring others to a saving knowl-. 
edge of the truth, by both their life and testi- 
mony. As one having been saved from ship- 
wreck tells the story of his rescue, so they told 
the story of their conversion. They were full 
of enthusiasm in the work of the Lord. Celsus, 
one of the most notable antagonists of Christi- 
anity, who lived in the second century, remarks 
scoffingfy that workers in wool or leather, rus- 
tic and ignorant persons, were the most zealous 
propogators of Christianity. The popish notion 
that it is only for a distinct class to help others 
into the Kingdom and that the clergy alone are 
able to be effectually engaged in the work of 
the Lord, was then unheard of. The fact is 
that according to the New Testament teaching 
the church, that is the congregation of the be- 
lieving ones, in apostolic times often designated 
as the "saints, " or the "brethren," is a spiritual 
priesthood (1 Pet. 2: 5, 9; Rev. 1: 6), all true be- 
lievers are priests of equal rank, having at all 
times and anywhere free access to God through 
Jesu^ Christ; all belong, as it were, to the cler- 
gy. The idea of a mediator, or administrator of 
divine grace, standing between Christ and the 
believer, is thoroughly unchristian. The believ- 



82 History of Christianity. 

er is a priest, also, in the sense that it is for him 
to give his body a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 
12: 1), and by intercession and testimony lead 
sinners to Christ. The laity, in the New Test- 
ament sense, which by the spiritual priesthood 
is to be brought to Christ, and into fellowship 
with God, is not in the church, but outside of it. 

The Christian ordinances were faithfully ob- 
served by the primitive Christians, not however 
with the thought to obtain salvation through 
them. No other principle is taught more clear- 
ly and brought out more forcibly in the New 
Testament Scriptures than this that salvation is 
a gift of grace obtained by faith in Christ. The 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and of for- 
giveness of sins through the observation of the 
Lord's Supper is utterly foreign to the apostolic 
age- 

The question as to infant baptism in the early 
church can not, strictly speaking, be settled by 
church history. History is silent in regard to it 
until the time of Tertullian about the year A. D. 
215. This question must be decided by the 
meaning and intent of baptism and by Biblical 
exegesis. The earliest formula as to the mode 
of baptism is found in the so-called Teaching of 
the Twelve Apostles (see p. 27) according to 
which the candidate for baptism is to be im- 
mersed in water, or, if circumstances will not 
permit of that, water should be poured on his 
head. 



The Primitive Church. 33 

The Lord's Supper was in the earliest period 
celebrated daily, or at least every Lord's day, 
and was preceded by a simple meal of brotherly 
love (agape); the latter custom was, however, 
soon discontinued, no commandment being found 
for it in the Scriptures. The Lord's Supper 
was held in commemoration of the death of the 
Lord, and as a token of Christian union and fel- 
lowship. The notion that there is a great mys- 
tery connected with it, is foreign to the teaching 
of the Scriptures. Of the unbiblical doctrines 
of later centuries there are few that have done 
more mischief than those of baptismal regener- 
ation and of sanctification through the observ- 
ance of the Lord's Supper. 

The organization of the primitive church was 
simple. The apostles were, during their life- 
time, naturally looked upon as leaders in the 
church. Their office was to serve the cause in 
general rather than single congregations, as was 
also the case in the instance of the offices of 
evangelists and prophets. The latter, However, 
seems to have been a function rather than an 
office. The officers of local congregations were 
ministers and deacons. The former were called 
presbyters (elders) or bishops (overseers). It is 
clear from the New Testament that both these 
terms were used interchangeably, having refer- 
ence to one and the same office. One congre- 
gation had, generally, a number of elders or 



34 History of Clivistia n ity. 

bishops. The fact that a large congregation 
without a house of worship was compelled to 
have meetings in different places at the same 
time, accounts in part for the plurality of minis- 
ters in the same congregation; and, at any rate, 
the offices in primitive Christendom were not 
salaried positions. Under the prevailing cir- 
cumstances it must particularly have been found 
of advantage that each congregation, or the 
' 'meetings" of each congregation, as a whole, 
should appoint one man to represent them and 
act in their name. However that may have been, 
it is clear that as early as the middle of the sec- 
ond century one man, as a rule, stood at the 
head of each congregation and was known as 
the bishop, while the other ministers were called 
presbyters. Later, bishops are met with only in 
the larger cities standing at the head of a group 
G f congregations. 

Every congregation had usually a number of 
deacons. The deacons' office was to attend to 
the wants of the poor asd the sick. They were 
assisted in this by deaconesses, or female help- 
ers. The needy and the sick w^ere well cared 
for. Each congregation was, in fact, what we 
should to-day designate a charitable society, and 
had, in this respect, something in common with 
the modern lodge. While, however, in prim- 
itive Christendom the motive for benevolence 
was charity and brotherly love, in the modern 



The Primitive Church. 35 

lodge the watchword is "benefit" which is of 
the nature of cheap life- and accident-insurance. 

The faith and practice of primitive Christen- 
dom is an interesting subject of study. It ought 
to be borne in mind, however, that what has 
been said here has reference particularly to the 
apostolic age and in part only of the post-apos- 
tolic period. The apostolic period closes with the 
death of John, about the year 100, while for the 
close of the post -apostolic period naturally only 
an approximate date can be given. We should 
be inclined to accept the year of the death of 
Polycarp (155) as marking the close of the post- 
apostolic and the beginning of a new period. 

After the death of the apostles there was, ap- 
parently, a lapse in spirituality. About the mid- 
dle of the second century spirituality showed 
not only a marked decrease but various unevan- 
gelical doctrines borrowed from Judaism and 
heathenism made their appearance in the church. 
There are, in fact, some unscriptural teachings 
found even in the writings of the so-called apos- 
tolic fathers and the other books of the post- 
apostolic period. 

It is a significant fact that the central theme 
of the gospel, justification by faith in Christ, is> 
outside of the Scriptures, found only in the 
writings of the earliest and mo> t spiritual of the 
"fathers"; namely, Clement of Rome and Poly- 
carp of Smyrna. After Polycarp, this doctrine 



36 History of Christianity \ 

was completely lost sight of, and in its stead was 
developed the idea of salvation through sacra- 
ments and through human mediators; viz., the 
ministers of the church who from the third cen- 
tury on were designated as priests. Ignatius of 
Antioch (p. 26) was the first writer by whom the 
idea was developed, that the ministry, namely, 
the bishops and presbyters, are the necessary 
medium through which the people have access 
to God. This opinion, however, was at Ignatius' 
time yet far from being generally accepted. In 
the ' 'Teaching of the Twelve" the giving of alms 
is designated as "a ransom for sin." Christian- 
ity came more and more to be looked upon as 
merely a new and more perfect law. 

The New Testament Scriptures. 

It should be borne in mind, first of all, that 
the plan and purpose of God would have been 
frustrated, notwithstanding the completion of 
the work of redemption if He had not provided 
the Bible. For individual salvation there must 
be a knowledge both of the work of Christ and 
of the conditions of salvation; and only by a di- 
vinely inspired book could such knowledge be 
transmitted to succeeding ages. ("Faith Com- 
eth by hearing and hearing by the Word of 
God.") 

Where would the Christian church be to-day 
without the Bible, or even if the Bible were looked 



The New Testament Scriptures. 37 

upon as a merely human book? Think of the 
darkness of the Middle Ages when Christendom T 
instead of having the Word of God for their 
guide, had to follow the leading of a professedly 
infallible pope. Conditions would, however, at 
that time have been worse, if possible, had not 
the popes and bishops themselves been in pos- 
session of the Bible. Christendom of that age 
was, indeed, not without some knowledge of 
Christ, yet they were to a great extent ignorant 
of the way of salvation, and so would you, 
reader, and I be, if we had not the Bible. 

If the record of Christ, his work and his teach- 
ing, as we have it in the Scriptures, be not cor- 
rect, of what consequence would it be to us that 
Christ was divine and infallible? An author- 
itative record of the fact of redemption and of 
the trutns of the gospel — an infallible Bible — is 
as indispensable as an infallible Christ. The 
thought that God should have failed to give 
mankind an authentic record of the great work 
of redemption and of the revelation of his truth, 
is inconceivable. If modern criticism be right 
in its assertion that the Bible is not an authori- 
tative statement of divine truth, if God has not 
done so much for the world that He made it pos- 
sible for mankind* to ascertain the truth which 
He revealed through Jesus Christ, it would be 
only natural to suppose that Christianity was 
nothing more than a product of human develop- 



38 History of Christianity. 

ment, as the more advanced of modern critics 
indeed assert. The truth of the gospel falls to 
the ground for more than one reason if the 
Bible be not the Word of God. 

The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament 
consist of twenty -seven books written by Apos- 
tles and Evangelists. These Scriptures are a 
part, and indeed the most important part of the 
Book of God, and were accepted as such by the 
primitive Christian church. 

The earliest books of the New Testament were 
written a number of years after the founding of 
the church. Meanwhile the believers made 
faithful use of the Old Testament Scriptures. 
Many of them had known the Lord Jesus person- 
ally; they had heard his teaching and seen the 
beauty and divinity of his life and his miracles. 
The apostles of the Lord, who had for three 
years been learners in the school of Jesus and 
had in a wonderful measure received the bap- 
tism of the Holy Ghost, w T ere the leaders in the 
church. The spiritual gifts peculiar to the apos- 
tolic age (1 Cor. chaps. 1 2-14), were generally in 
evidence. All this served to compensate the 
early church for the New Testament Scriptures 
which were written during the second half of 
the first century. 

When the hope of the first Christians that our 
Lord would return during their life-time was not 
realized, when many of the believers who "had 



The New Testament Scriptures. 39 

gone in and out with Him" had passed away, 
the church without doubt perceived that an in- 
spired record of the work of the Christ and the 
gospel teaching became a necessity and even 
more indispensable, than the Old Testament 
Scriptures. At any rate, the earliest Christian 
writings, which we have outside of the Bible, 
bear witness to the fact that the New Testament 
Scriptures were acknowledged by the primitive 
church as the Word of God, the same as the 
Scriptures of the Old Testament. In the epis- 
tles of Clement, Polycarp and Ignatius, as well 
as the book called the Epistle of Barnabas, are 
fo nd quotations from different books of the New 
Testament introduced by the words, "as the 
sacred Scripture saith," or, simply, "as the 
Scripture saith," or (in the case of the Epistle of 
Barnabas,) "as it is written," proving conclu- 
sively that the New Testament was accepted as a 
part of the canon, as well as the Old. 

There is evidence that the principal books of 
the New Testament, the four Gospels, the Acts, 
the thirteen Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle of 
Peter and the first of John, were in general use 
in the church in tho middle of the second century. 
The other New Testament books were, with- 
out question, also in use at that time. Owing, 
however, to the fact that only a few of the Chris- 
tian books of the early post-apostolic period are 
extant, it can not be expected that we find in 



40 History of Christianity. 

them quotations from every biblical book. It is 
true that toward the close of the second century, 
and later, at least in some of the churches, such 
books as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shep- 
herd of Hermas were also read in the religious 
meetings, and there was on the part of some 
churches, a hesitancy in accepting certain bib- 
lical books, such as the second Epistle of Peter 
and the second and third of John, as inspired 
writings; yet, notwithstanding this, they were 
read in the meetings of the churches. At any 
rate, we can not take the judgment of the church 
of that period as final, so much the less as it is 
evident that some unscriptural teachings had 
already found their way into her borders. What 
the church or some of the churches of the lat- 
ter part of the second century or of the third 
century did, or failed to do, should have no 
authoritative weight with us, however highly 
the knowledge of it may interest us. 

One of the important services which church 
h' story has rendered toward establishing the 
authenticity of the Bible is that through it has 
been pointed out the great difference bet.veen 
the inspired Scriptures of the New Testament 
and the Christian books of the same period 
which were not inspired. Not only do all the 
Christian books written at the same time as the 
New Testament Scriptures, or somewhat later, 
contain some ideas which are out of harmony 



The New Testament Scriptures. Jfl 

with the Holy Scriptures, but they lack the very 
qualities which make the Book of God so great 
a power for good and for godliness- The Word 
of God "is quick (living) and powerful," it is the 
"helmet of salvation," "the sword of the Spirit." 
It is through the Word of God that the divine 
life is generated and nourished. The Lord Je- 
sus says of his own words that "they are spirit 
and they are life," but the other ancient Chris- 
tian books lack these very properties. The only 
one of these books which would seem to be an 
exception is the Epistle of Polycarp which in 
sentiment and tone is remarkably apostolic, al- 
though even this book contains the assertion 
that "alms saves from death " and to settle the 
question as to its inspiration, the writer himself 
states that he is aware of its falling far short of 
being equal to the writings of the apostle Paul. 

It is only natural that a divinely inspired book 
would differ widely from books written by the 
same men or class of men under ordinary circum- 
stances. In the case of the Bible the difference 
between it and the rest of the earliest Christian 
writings is very marked; so much so that if the 
church of to-day were called upon to draw the 
line between inspired or biblical books and the 
other writings the problem would present no 
difficulty. 

The Bible has been compared to an oriental 
city surrounded by the wilderness. We should 



J$ History of Christianity. 

rather compare the New Testament Scriptures 
to a beautiful orchard in the forest. Some com- 
paratively wholesome food may be found in the 
forest, although not likely in sufficient quantity 
for the subsistance of life for any great length 
of time; but there is also poisonous fruit there. 
Notwithstanding this, the forest can be made 
useful in different ways; yet, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, an orchard will not be confounded 
with it. 

As to a comparison between the Bible and the 
books accepted as sacred by certain (heathen) 
nations, it is evident that the best one of fc 'the 
sacred books of the East," the one which con- 
tains more elements of truth than any of the 
others is the Koran of Mohammed. The ques- 
tion which is, therefore, simply one of compar- 
ison between the Bible and the Koran, will 
receive due attention in the history of the rise of 
Mohammedanism in the seventh century.* 



* For notes on the so-called higher criticism of the 
Bible which is a product of modern growth, see the latter 
part of the book. 



II. 



The Development of a Hierarchy 
and State Churchism. 

A. D. 160-337. 

The beginning of this period finds the Chris- 
tian church no longer in the possession of prim- 
itive purity and power. After apostolic spirit- 
uality, the world-overcoming Holy Ghost power 
had decreased, the outside influences which were 
brought to bear upon the church proved too 
strong to be effectually resisted. Various prin- 
ciples of the gospel had been gradually iost 
sight of, and in their stead appeared unevangel- 
ical doctrines which were, by and by, accepted 
by the most influential Christian teachers. The 
spirituality of Christianity seemed to be too high 
an order; the pure light of the gospel was, as it 
were, too bright f orithe eyes of men at that age. 
Gradually and slowly, but effectually, the light 
was obscured by doctrines of men until in the 
darkest period of the Middle Ages it appeared 
to have been put under a bushel. It should, 



44 Hist oi 7/ of Christia n ity. 

however, be noted that as much of the light as 
could penetrate the screen which men had put 
around it, was eagerly sought and faithfully 
accepted at that early age. Even if Christianity 
was looked upon merely as a new law, it was 
a law far better than that of heathenism. The 
great truths of Christ, the God-man, of his pro- 
pitiatory death on the cross, and the fact that 
trus earth is not the true home of man, and that 
there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, 
were at all times upheld by Christendom. But 
unscriptural ideas, as to the conditions of indi- 
vidual salvation, began to prevail. 

Under Emperor Marcus Aurelius (A. D. 161- 
180) there was a severe persecution of Christians 
in the south of France. ■ 'The enemies of the 
gods," as the Christians were styled, received 
the blame for certain national disasters, such as 
earthquakes and pestilence. Bishop Pothinus 
of Lyons and many others who refused to deny 
Christ were put to death. Under the reign of 
the succeeding emperors, a number of persecu- 
tions occurred: notably, those by Septimius Sev- 
erus (193-211) and Valerian (253-260). The first 
to extend over the whole empire was that by 
Decius (249-251), which in cruelty exceeded all 
previous persecutions. Confiscation, exile, tor- 
ture and the stake were employed to move the 
Christians to apostacy . Those who were at that 
time imprisoned in Rome wrote to their brethren 



Development of State Churehism. 4& 

in Africa: ' 'Though we have not yet shed our 
blood, we are ready to do so. Pray for us, then, 
that the Lord, the best captain, would daily 
strengthen each one of us more and more, and at 
last lead us to the field as faithful soldiers, 
armed with those divine weapons (Eph. 6: 2) 
which can never be conquered. ' ' 

Although persecution had not always contin- 
ued, and nearly all the molestations had been of 
a local nature, the Christians were, until the 
time of Gallienus, never secure from persecution. 
The first emperor to protect the Christian church 
by law was not Constantine, as some suppose, 
but Gallienus. In the year 263 Gallienus issued 
an edict of toleration in which he acknowledged 
Christianity as a "lawful religion." For forty 
years, until the year 303, the whole church was 
left unmolested. There was, during this long 
period of peace from without, a rapid increase 
in numerical strength. 

This period of repose was followed by the 
last and greatest of all persecutions. Emperor 
Diocletian (284-305) was influenced by his co-re- * 
gent and son-in-law, Galerius, to authorize a 
persecution of the Christians. It was there- 
upon decreed that Christian churches should be 
destroyed, that all Bibles be burned, and that 
Christians should sacrifice to the gods upon pain 
of death. This persecution soon spread over 
the whole Roman Empire with the exception of 



46 History of Christian ity. 

western Europe, where Constantius Chlorus, the 
father of Constantine, was regent. After Dioc- 
letian's abdication, in 305, Galerius became em- 
peror and with the assistance of his co-regents, 
Maximian and Maximin, continued the work of 
destruction. While in former persecutions the 
number of apostates had been comparatively 
small, there were now very many professing 
Christians whose faith did not stand the test; 
yet, the number that suffered death was large, 
being estimated at several thousands. 

After eight years of severe persecution, the 
Roman government, and notably Constantine, 
who since 306 had been regent of the western 
portion of the Empire, were convinced that the 
attemped extermination of the Christian church 
was a hopeless task — an impossibility. In the 
year 311 Emperor Galerius, together with the 
co-regents, Licinius and Constantine, issued an 
edict of toleration in which he gave the Chris- 
tians permission to hold their religious assem- 
blies. The document closes with the remarkable 
request that the Christians ■ 'should pray to their 
God for the welfare of the emperor, of the state, 
and of themselves, that the state might prosper 
in every respect, and that they might live quietly 
in their homes." 

The emperors Gallienus (263) and Galerius 
(311) had, as stated above, guaranteed to the 
Christians toleration and freedom of worship. 



Development of State Churchism. J/7 

Constantine, however, who, in course of a few 
years, realized his ambition to become sole em- 
peror, conceived the idea of making Christianity 
the religion of the state. The realization of 
this idea marks an epoch in church history. 
For the better understanding of historical devel- 
opment at this time it is necessary to give more 
detailed attention to the motives which led Con- 
stantine to effect a union of the Christian church 
with the Roman state. 

There is a well known account of what is gen- 
erally styled the conversion of Constantine. It 
is as follows: Constantine, while marching 
against his rival Maxentius, in 312, saw r , with his 
whole army, in clear daylight, a shining cross in 
the heavens, w T ith the inscription, "By this con- 
quer. ' ' In the following night Christ himself 
appeared to him and commanded him — not, as 
one would suppose, to repent and take up the 
cross, but — to prepare a standard in the form of 
a cross and have the sign of the cross put on the 
shields of his soldiers; and having done this, he 
would overcome his rival. Constantine did as 
directed, defeated Maxentius, and was hence- 
forth the protector of the Christians. 

It should be noted here, that our Lord, in his 
discourses , often referred to the bearing of the 
cross, but who could conceive of Him as direct- 
ing some general to choose the sign of the cross 
for his ensign, and, by so doing, be victorious 



Jf8 History of Christianity. 

over his enemy? If Jesus during his earthly 
career would have consented to do such a thing 
for his own people, they would have been more 
ready to believe in Him and He would without 
doubt have been the most popular man in Pales- 
tine. This would, by the way, have been so 
much easier, than to bear the actual cross and 
die on Calvary. The tempter had told Him so, 
when he proposed to give Him all the kingdoms 
of the world. Could it be possible, that the 
meek and lowly Nazarene had now become a Ro- 
man god of war? 

Eusebius, the historian, relates this absurd 
story in his "Life of Constantine," which he 
wrote in 338. In his "Church History," how- 
ever, written in 326, (only thirteen years after 
that battle with Maxentius,) Eusebius does not 
mention any miraculous occurrence, nor even 
alude to it. Had he known of such a miracle, he 
would certainly have given an account of it at 
the time. But it was later that Constantine 
related it to him under oath. Now, the very 
fact that Constantine had to sware an oath to 
make Eusebius accept it, renders the story all 
the more suspicious. If Constantine and his 
great army had seen a heavenly sign, the occur- 
rence would have been generally known, and 
no oath would have been necessary. At any 
rate, to substantiate a historical fact by an oath, 
is a singular idea. We will not accuse Constan- 



Development of State Churchism. 4$ 

tine of willfully swearing a false oath, although 
this would not by any means be his only crime. 
He may, in this case, have labored under a delu- 
sion. 

According to Rufinus, a later historian of the 
same century, Constantine saw that apparition 
in a dream, and upon awaking an angel appeared 
to him — whether a white or a black angel is not 
stated. Lactantius, the earliest witness, writ- 
ing the account only three years after that bat- 
tle, knows only of a dream by night. Since he 
is a trustworthy witness, and his narration pre- 
sents no difficulties, we are inclined to accept it 
as historical. 

This, however, does not give us any light as to 
the motives of Constantine. The point in ques- 
tion is, what caused him to dream dreams of that 
sort. 

Constantine was fully aware of two facts: 
first, that Roman heathenism had outlived itself 
and was fast declining; and secondly, that Chris- 
tianity possessed a wonderful vitality, and was 
destined to spread over all the Empire. Accord- 
ing to Eusebius he reasoned in the following 
manner: "My father revered the Christian God 
and prospered, while the emperors who wor- 
shiped the heathen gods, died a miserable death; 
therefore, I will imitate the example of my father 
and join myself to the cause of the Christians 
who are growing daily, while the heathen are 



50 History of Christianity. 

diminishing. ' ' The decline of the heathen religion 
was indeed supposed to threaten the very exist- 
ence of the state. It was believed that the state 
could not prosper without having some religion 
united with it. This new religion, which w T as 
worth so much to its possessors that they were 
willing to die for it, if need be, would without 
fail, impart new vitality to the decaying Roman 
Empire, if he could unite it with the state on the 
same principle as heretofore Roman heathenism 
had been united with it. 

It was evident, then, that a union of the state 
with the Christian church would mean a gain 
to the state. And Constantine, in all prob- 
ability, believed fully that such a union would 
prove of decided advantage to the church, also. 
The Christians would at once become the dom- 
inant party; the church and her officers would 
henceforth command a high position in the 
world. Not only would the precedent of the 
imperial court make Christianity very popular 
in the Empire, but the religion of the state 
would have to be professed by every citizen and 
every inhabitant of the state. Any citizen 
refusing to join the ranks of the church would 
be compelled to do so. 

There is, indeed, nothing strange in Constan- 
tine conceiving the idea of a union between the 
Roman state and the Christian church, and 
dreaming peculiar dreams concerning it: all this 



Development of State Churchism. 51 

was very natural. The wonder about it is that 
the Christian church, the professed followers of 
the non-resistant Nazarene, of Him whose king- 
dom is founded on the principle of love and 
humility, who was born in a manger and died 
on the cross, who fled when He was to be 
made king, who bid the fighting disciple to put 
up his sword, who declared before Pilate that 
his kingdom is not of this world, who pro- 
nounced a woe upon popularity — the wonder is, 
we say> that the Christian church could now for- 
get her high calling so far as to consent to 
become to the Roman state a substitute for rot- 
ting Roman heathenism, entering into an un- 
holy union with the state and the world, and 
that, apparently, without a dissenting voice from 
within her own borders. That such was possi- 
ble can be explained only from the fact that the 
church had been drifting from gospel principles 
for nearly two hundred years, and had ere this 
fallen from her first estate. It was only from 
one or two comparatively small denominations, 
that protest against state churchism was raised. 
The shrewd politician and statesman Con- 
stantine did, however, not deem it advisable to 
abolish heathenism, as it were, with one stroke. 
Such a course would, without doubt, have caused 
political disturbances. He entered upon the new 
course by granting full freedom to all existing 
forms of worship, and ordering the church build- 



S2 History of Christianity. 

ings confiscated in the late persecution to be 
restored to the Christians. By and by he insti- 
tuted laws, which favored the Christians and 
toward the close of his reign, he prohibited idol- 
atrous sacrifices. It is, however, doubtful 
whether any persecution of the heathen occurred 
under his reign; some of the Christian "her- 
etics," on the other hand, that is, those Chris- 
tians which were not in unison with the teach 
ings of the state church, were persecuted by 
him. 

Since Rome had been the headquarters and was 
naturally the foremost stronghold of Roman 
heathenism, the emperor undertook to build a 
new capital — the city of Constantinople, form- 
erly also known as New Rome. 

The reign of this first nominally Christian 
emperor is stained with gross crimes. In the 
very year in which he summoned the great 
council of Nice, he had his conquered rival and 
brother-in-law Liciaius executed in breach of a 
solemn pledge that his life would be spared. He 
also caused the death of the son of Licinius, a 
boy of eleven years. In 326 he had his own eld 
est son, Crispus, executed on a mere suspicion. 
Constantine was successful in his attempt to 
make the Roman Empire an absolute monarchy, 
or despotism. He also gave great sums of 
money for the building of Christian churches, 
which, however, in the case of an absolute mon- 



Developmen t of State Churchism. 53 

arch does not involve any personal sacrifice. 
Finding it easier to put the sign of the cross on 
his shield, than to bear the cross of Christ, Con- 
stantine put off baptism until his life had been 
despaired of. He was baptized three days before 
his death, in 337, by bishop Eusebius of Nic- 
omedia. From the stand-point of popery — and 
from that only — Constantine, the originator of 
state churchism, has well deserved the title 
"the Great, " with which he was honored. 

The union of church and state was effected* 
it should be observed, at the end of this period, 
which was one of development, or rather degen- 
eration, on the part of the church. Soon after 
the middle of the second century, at the close 
of the primitive period, the beginning of a laxity 
in discipline is noticeable, particularly in Rome 
and some other cities. It was emphasized by 
some of the church fathers, notably Cyprian and 
later Augustine, that the churches ought not to 
be too exacting in discipline. The opinion was 
advanced that excommunication should take 
place for no other cause than heresy, that is, 
false teaching. This departure from the apos- 
tolic principle of the purity of the church is 
marked by the rise of Montanism whose aim it 
was to keep up the original strictness of disci- 
pline. But although there was on the part of 
the large church, a slow but steady decline of 
primitive moral earnestness, yet, when com- 



54 History of Christia n ity. 

pared with later centuries, the general condition 
of the church was, during the time of persecu- 
tion, comparatively good. Enough of serious- 
ness of moral purpose was left to contrast power- 
fully with the prevailing corruption of the age. 
During the second and third centuries Chris- 
tianity gained foothold practically in all prov- 
inces of the Roman Empire: notably in Persia, 
Media, Bactria, Parthia, Armenia, and Arabia, 
in Gaul, Spain, parts of western Germany and 
y Britain. In the countries to which it had pen- 
etrated during the preceding period, the number 
of believers had continually increased and many 
churches had been established. At a council in 
Alexandria, in the year 235, twenty bishops 
were present from different parts of Egypt. 
North Africa, the native land of Augustine, the 
greatest of the church fathers, had many flour- 
ishing churches. Eighty-seven bishops took 
part in a council at Carthage in North Africa in 
308, while the Donatist faction held a council of 
two hundred and seventy bishops in the same 
city. In the year 255 Italy was represented by 
sixty bishops at a council in Rome. Three Brit- 
ish bishops were present in a council at Aries in 
France, in 314. 

The Church Fathers of this Period. 

The principal Christian writers and teachers 
of this period and the following two centuries 
are known as the church fathers, a designation 



The Church Fathers. 5o 

which, it must be conceded, is somewhat mislead- 
ing. It is evident that these men are not the 
fathers of the Christian church, for that had 
existed long before them, and indeed in a far 
purer form. They are, however, the fathers of 
Roman Catholicism and of theology. They were 
great and good men who had the cause of Christ 
and the church at heart; their zeal, however, 
was not always according to knowledge. 
Known or unknown to themselves they, instead 
of keeping close to the Word of God, allowed 
themselves to be largely influenced by heathen 
and Jewish ideas. 

We have, then, in the church fathers of this 
period, the beginnings of Christian theology. 
In the primitive church, it should be observed, 
the inspired Word of God was held to be the 
sufficient and only trustworthy guide for faith 
and practice. Questions which presented them- 
selves for consideration were decided by the 
Scriptures; or, if they could not be disposed 
of in that way, were dropped. 

If the so-called church fathers had devoted 
themselves more faithfully to the study and 
expounding of the Bible, and if the succeeding 
ages also would have given their attention to 
Bible study rather than theology, it would have 
been far better for Christendom. As the 
church, however, drifted away from the Bible 
standard of purity in doctrine and practice, some 



56 History of Christianity. 

basis had to be found for the deviations. The 
Scriptures could be no longer accepted as suffi- 
cient foundation of faith. It had to be reasoned 
out that the church was right notwithstanding 
the Bible. Theology became an indispensable 
factor. The greater a difference between Bible 
teaching and the teaching of the church became 
evident, the less was it possible to do without 
theology. The study of theology came soon to 
be looked upon as the sole qualification for the 
priesthood. 

Instead of bowing unconditionally to the 
authority of the Word of God, the leaders in the 
church had their own ideas and preconceived 
notions which, as a matter of fact, they attempted 
to support by Bible passages. Instead of look- 
ing upon the revelation of divine truth and the 
divine will in the Word of God as absolutely 
authoritative and final, theology (that is, the 
ideas and speculations of men who attempted to 
convert the truth of God into a human science) 
was in the course of time allowed to supersede 
the Bible. After Constantine's time the church 
fell so low that it became one of the principles 
of theology that the people had no right to read 
the Holy Scriptures, and it was dangerous to do 
so even for the priests. With the Bible, the 
life-giving principle was lost to the church. 
Formalism abounded more and more, as will be 
evident from a study of the following period. 



The Church Fathers. 57 

Following are a few brief sketches of the 
most noted the of church fathers oi this period: 

Justin Martyr, born in Shechem, in Samaria, of 
Greek parents, had been a philosopher. In his 
thirtieth year he was converted and became a 
zealous defender of Christianity. In 165 he was 
condemned in Rome to be scourged and 
beheaded. 

Tatian, of Assyria, was a pupil of Justin Mar- 
tyr. He was not a church father in a strict 
sense, but was the author of an important work, 
the Diatessaron, or Harmony of the four Gos- 
pels. He died in A. D. 172. 

Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, went as a mis- 
sionary from Asia Minor to southern Gaul 
(France). In 178, the year after the persecution 
under Marcus Aurelius, he was chosen bishop of 
the church at Lyons, where he died probably 
soon after A. D. 190. 

Clement, of Alexandria, born about 150, was 
well versed in Greek literature and philosophy. 
From 189 to 202 he was one of the presbyters 
of the church at Alexandria. 

Origen, a remarkable man for genius and 
learning, was born in the year 185 in Alexandria 
of Christian parents. His father Leonidas died 
a martyr in the persecution of Septimius Sev- 
erus. Origen wrote to his father in prison, 
beseeching him to remain faithful to Christ. He 
had resolved to give himself up to the heathen 



58 History of Christianity. 

authorities, in spite of the protests of his mother 
who finally hid his clothes to prevent him from 
carrying out his purpose. At the age of eigh- 
teen he became a teacher of religion at Alexan- 
dria, and in 228 was ordained presbyter. Bishop 
Demetrius, of Alexandria, stirred by jealousy, 
brought various charges against him, and, hav- 
ing held two councils with the church, excom- 
municated him in 232. The sentence was com- 
municated to other churches, which partly 
approved of it, while others protested. After 
Dionysius had become bishop of Alexandria, 
Origen, who had left the country, received an 
invitation to return. In the Decian persecution 
he was cast into prison, cruelly tortured and 
condemned to the stake, but regained his liberty 
by the death of the emperor. Origen died in 254 
at Tyre in Palestine. Of his writings many are 
extant. Although various unscriptural princi- 
ples were advocated by him, his life was blame- 
less. "We must pity them," said he of his 
enemies, "rather than hate them; pray for them 
rather than persecute them; for we are made for 
a blessing and not for a cursing." 

Cyprian, born about the year 200, was before 
his conversion a noted man of the world, and an 
eminent teacher of Rhetoric. He was con- 
verted in 246, when he forsook the world, sold 
his estates for the benefit of the poor, and was 
baptized. Only two years after his baptism he 



MoiitanlsDi and Tertullian. 59 

was chosen bishop of Carthage, and as such 
gave evidence of exceptional executive ability. 
In the persecution under Valerian he was sent 
into exile for eleven months, and was then tried 
and condemned to be ben eaded. Upon receiving 
information of the sentence, he knelt in prayer, 
tied the bandage over his eyes, gave the execu- 
tioner a gold piece, and died "as a true hero of 
faith." 

Eusebius of Csesarea is not generally counted 
among the church fathers; he was, however, 
"the father of church history." His most val- 
uable works are his Ecclesiastical History, his 
Chronicle, andhis Life of Constantine. He has 
done the church a great service in chronicling 
many events, record of which is found in his 
writings only. Eusebius' Life of Constantine, 
however, can not be classed with works of 
impartial history, as it is rather a eulogy on 
the first Christian emperor, ignoring or at least 
diminishing his faults and enlarging upon his 
merits. 

Montanism, and Tertullian. 

When, about the middle of the second century, 
at the close of the post apostolic period, various 
innovations were introduced into the church, 
when a marked laxity in discipline was man- 
ifested, and the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. chapters 
12-14,) disappeared, there occurred in the rise of 
Montanism the first division in the church. The 



60 History of Christianity. 

Montanists held that the church was falling from 
her first estate. They organized themselves 
as a church and endeavored to maintain the piety 
and earnestness of the apostolic age. The first 
leader in this movement was a certain Montanus, 
of Phrygia in Asia Minor, who earnestly 
preached the necessity of a reformation, and 
believed that the spiritual gifts would be perpet- 
uated in the church if the believers were faith- 
ful in the service of God. The movement 
spread to Italy and also to North Africa, where 
Tertullian became the advocate of the principles 
maintained by the Montanists. A number of 
emperors, down to Justinian (530), repeatedly 
enacted laws against them, which indicates that 
this church was in existence at least to that date. 
The Montanists asserted with emphasis the 
universal priesthood of believers. They had an 
ordained ministry, but would not admit that the 
ministry stands on a higher level than other 
members of the church. The principal requisite 
for a minister of the gospel, they said, is not 
school learning, but the call and qualification by 
the Holy Spirit; he who was lacking this should 
not be ordained. They were zealous in their 
protest against the growing looseness in disci- 
pline. Attendance at dances and theatres, as 
well as vanity of dress, were strictly forbidden. 
The importance of fasting was asserted. Mem- 
bers of the church were not permitted to serve 



Montanism and Tertullian. 61 

in the army. Swearing of oaths was rejected, 
as was also infant baptism. 

It was emphatically taught by the Montanists 
that the present dispensation is that of the Holy 
Spirit. They looked for the speedy return of 
Christ to establish the Millennium, and this was 
mentioned by them as one of their reasons for 
their strictness in discipline. They were truly 
in earnest in serving the Lord and following in 
the footsteps of the apostolic church. The prin- 
ciple of salvation by grace, however, was not 
any more clear to them than to the large church 
of that period. 

Tertullian of Carthage in North Africa was 
one of the most prominent men of Christian 
antiquity. He was born about 1 50, at Carthage, 
the principal city of North Africa. His father, 
a captain in the Roman army, gave his gifted 
son a good education in history, philosophy and 
literature. Previous to his conversion, in his 
thirtieth or fortieth year, Tertullian had been a 
lawyer. He was married and in one of his books 
gives a beautiful picture of Christian family life. 
Having been ordained a presbyter, he united 
with the Montanists, and became the ablest 
exponent of their principles. He was a keen 
original thinker and an able writer, full of ear- 
nestness and enthusiasm for the cause, a man of 
strong convictions which he vindicated without 
fear or favor. His extant writings cover nearly 



62 Hist 01 y of Chi istianity. 

every phase of Christian doctrine and practice. 
He died about 220. Tertullian was the first 
Christian writer to use the Latin language. In 
the western portions of the Roman Empire, 
Latin had more and more become the language 
of the people. The literature of the church dur- 
ing the first two centuries, however, is exclu- 
sively in the Greek language. 

The Novatianist Church. 

About one hundred years after the rise of 
Montanism, the Novatianist Church was organ- 
ized. When, about the middle of the third cen- 
tury, discipline had well-nigh been dropped in the 
church at Rome, Novatian, a learned and very 
influential presbyter protested against the pre- 
vailing laxity. A minority cf the church were 
in unison with him, and, against his will, elected 
him bishop in 251. Cornelius of Rome, who had 
for years been bishop, excommunicated him. 
Although a man of unblemished character, Nova- 
tian was denounced by Cornelius as ' 'a deceit- 
ful, cunning, and savage beast. " The Novatian- 
ist church spread in several provinces of the 
empire. They were persecuted by Constantine 
who prohibited them to worship in public, but 
notwithstanding oppression they gained many 
followers. Congregations of this persuasion 
were in existence during the following two and 
even down to the sixth century. In Phrygia 
the Montanists united with them. 



The Donatist Church. 63 

The Novatianists kept up a strict discipline, 
claiming that the church which does not censure 
worldliness or excommunicate those members 
that may have fallen into heinous sin, is no 
longer a true Christian church. Falling into 
the opposite extreme from the great church they 
held that the church had no right to forgive a 
deadly sin, and, upon repentance, receive the 
transgressor again into her fellowship. While 
they did not deny that God might forgive even 
one who had denied Christ during the persecu- 
tion, they denied the right of the church to 
assure such an one of forgiveness. 
The Donatist Church. 

Another movement which had for its object 
the preservation of the apostolic purity of the 
Christian church was that of the Donatists. Of 
this persuasion there were, daring the fourth 
and fifth centuries many large and flourishing 
churches. 

In North Africa there had for a long time been 
a numerous party who were dissatisfied with the 
laxity of discipline which came more and more 
into evidence. A division occurred in the year 
311 when those who were in favor of loose disci- 
pline succeeded to have one of their number, 
Caecilian, elected bishop of Carthage. The Don- 
atists refused to acknowledge him as such, 
partly on the ground that the bishop who had 
performed the ordination ceremony was a trad- 



64 History of Christianity. 

itor, that is one who had delivered up the 
sacred writings to the heathen persecutors and 
was, therefore, or ought to have been, under the 
censure of the church. They elected Majorinus 
as bishop in his place, and in a council in which 
seventy bishops were present, excommunicated 
Csecilian. After Majorinus' death, in 315, Don- 
atus was chosen bishop, from whom the name 
of the party was derived. 

The Donatists made the mistake of appealing 
to Constantine who in 316 declared against them, 
recognizing Ceecilian as bishop of Carthage. He 
decreed the banishment of their bishops and the 
confiscation of their church property. When it 
was, however, found that they would suffer per- 
secution and even death rather than recant, and 
that they numbered their adherents by hundreds 
of thousands, Constantine, in 321, decided to 
grant them liberty of worship. Yet they were 
severely persecuted by the succeeding emper- 
ors, except Julian. 

Augustine, the greatest of the church fathers 
(see history of the following period) wrote a 
number of books against the Donatists, main- 
taining that in this present evil world it was 
right for the church to have heinous sinners in 
her midst. He referred to the parable of the 
tares in the wheat where the injunction is given 
to "let both grow together until the time of har- 
vest. ' ' The Donatists, however, replied that in 



The Donatist Church. 65 

the exposition which Christ himself gives of 
this parable, He says, "The field" (from which 
the tares should not be plucked up) "is the 
world" and not the church, as Augustine would 
have it. The great church father advanced dif- 
ferent theological arguments to justify his opin- 
ion, but the Donatists appealed to the Scrip- 
tures. 

When his writings and the public discussions 
which he had with them failed to have the 
desired effect, Augustine advocated the employ- 
ment of force to bring them into the fellowship 
of the state church. If there was no other way 
to root out their "error, M he was in favor of 
imprisoning them and even putting them to 
death. The Donatists ridiculed the idea .of the 
Christian church employing force to make men 
Christians. 

Augustine found it a difficult matter to pro- 
duce Bible passages in support of the principle 
of religious persecution. He succeeded in find- 
ing one passage by which he believed the 
principle could be established. He appealed to 
the words in the parable of the supper (Luke 14: 
23), "compel them to come in." Apparently, 
he did not see far enough to be aware that 
this application of the above quoted words of 
Christ would imply that those who had been 
sent to invite men to the supper, had orders to 
imprison such as were not willing to come, and 



66 History of Christianity. 

if this was found to be insufficient, to have them 
put to death, thereby making those giving the 
invitation (the "ambassadors in Christ's stead") 
hangmen. Neither did he seem to be aware 
that by putting them to death, he would, accord- 
ing to his own teaching, compel them to be con- 
demned to hell, instead of ' 'coming in," for he 
believed that death in heresy meant damnation. 

The account of the way in which the Scrip- 
tures were made to support some of the teach- 
ings of the church fathers reads like a fairy 
tale. Yet, as a matter of fact, these men them- 
selves did not seem to be aware of it. They 
maintained stoutly that the "heresies" of the 
Donatists and other smaller Christian denomina- 
tions could be explained only from the supposed 
fact that these "deluded men" were blinded by 
the Devil. It is superfluous to say that the above 
passage in Luke is in no wise responsible for 
religious persecutions carried on by the nom- 
inal Christian church. The "heretics'' would 
have been persecuted nevertheless, even if the 
parable of the supper were not found in the 
Bible. 

In spite of the severest persecution by banish- 
ment, confiscation and death, the Donatist church 
perpetuated itself to the time of pope Gregory I. 
in the seventh century. - 

The Donatists saw in the great imperial church 
which embraced the nation in a mass, the uncon. 



The Donatist Church- 67 

verted indeed as well as the Christians, a sec- 
ularized Babylon. They maintained that disci- 
pline, the censure or excommunication of those 
that may fall into open sin, was an absolute 
characteristic of a true Christian church. The 
principle of state churchism they held to be fun- 
damentally wrong. Augustine finally advanced 
the claim that it was impossible that the com- 
paratively small party of the Donatists could be 
right and the great church with her tens of mill- 
ions of professing Christians wrong. According 
to this argument, however, the apostolic church, 
comprising, as it did, only a very small number 
as compared with the Jews, could not have been 
right. We have the account of his controver- 
sies with the Donatists in Augustine's own writ- 
ings. 

Arianism and the Council of Nice. 

In the three preceding schisms, namely, those 
of the Montanists, Novatianists and Donatists, 
we have a reaction on the part of the more ear- 
nest Christians against the more and more pre- 
vailing worldliness, as well as against priest 
rule and state churchism. Arianism, on the 
other hand, was of quite a different nature. 
Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, taught that 
Christ, while he was indeed the Creator of the 
world, w T as himself a creature of God, ' 'created 
out of nothing/ ' and, therefore, not truly divine. 
He was excommunicated, with his followers, by 



68 History of Christianity. 

a council of one hundred bishops, at Alexandria, 
in 321. Notwithstanding this he continued to 
hold religious assemblies, and his opinions were 
accepted as orthodox even by a number of 
bishops. 

Great interest was manifested in this contro- 
versy by the whole of Christendom. Emperor 
Constantine feared that the entire church would 
be divided into two hostile camps, which he con- 
sidered as disastrous even to the prosperity of 
the state. He, therefore, summoned the bishops 
of the large Christian church to a general coun- 
cil, to be held in the year 325, in the city of 
Nicsea or Nice, in Bithynia, to settle the contro- 
versy. Each bishop was to bring with him two 
presbyters and three servants, and all expenses 
of travel and sojourn in Nice were to be paid by 
the emperor. 

It is estimated that there were at that time 
about eighteen hundred bishops in the empire. 
Three hundred and eighteen of them, represent- 
ing nearly all provinces convened at Nice. 
Eusebius describes the formal opening of the 
council as follows: ■ 'After all the bishops had 
entered the central building of the royal palace, 
on the sides of which very many seats had been 
prepared, each took his place with becoming 
modesty, and silently awaited the arrival of the 
emperor. The court officers entered one after 
another, though only such as professed faith in 



The Council of Nice. 69 

Christ. The moment the approach of the 
emperor was announced by a given signal, they 
all rose from their seats, and the emperor 
appeared like a heavenly messenger of God, 
covered, as he was, with gold and gems, a glo- 
rious presence, very tall and slender, full of 
beauty, strength and majesty." A golden 
throne had been prepared for him, which he 
occupied during the session. 

The first council of the new state church, 
presided over by the Roman emperor, a man 
who was not even nominally a Christian, attired, 
as he was in barbarous splendor, presents a 
remarkable spectacle. What a change in the 
attitude of the church toward the emperor whom 
they had shortly before feared as their worst 
enemy. Apparently, the adversary had now 
become tirea of playing the unprofitable part of 
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; he 
came now as * 'a heavenly messenger of God, ' ' 
proposing to guarantee the support of the 
hierarchy, and doing his best to make the repre- 
sentatives of the church have a good time. 
They not only "fared sumptuously" during their 
two months sojourn in Nice, but were before 
their departure given an extra banquet by the 
emperor whom they recognized as * 'the bishop 
of the exterior affairs of the church." They 
were of the opinion that the church had within 
a few years made a great stride forward. 



70 History of Christianity. 

At any event, the bishops who were assembled 
in this council should be given credit for decid- 
ing the question as to the divinity of Christ 
according to the teaching of the Scriptures. 
They declared almost unanimously against 
Arianism. Those constituting the council seem 
to have been willing to remain faithful to apos- 
tolic principles as far as the same were not in 
direct contradiction to state churchism and not 
too inconvenient under the new order of things. 

Nearly all the bishops present subscribed to 
the creed, which had been presented by Hosius 
of Cordova, asserting the divinity of Christ. 
The decrees of the council were published by 
the emperor as laws of the empire and the few 
bishops who persisted in the condemned doc- 
trines were, with Arius, banished to Illyria. 
There was, however, later a great revival of 
Arianism, particularly in the East. But in the 
council of Constantinople, in 381, the doctrines 
of Arius were again condemned, and the public 
worship of Arius was forbidden by law. In 
consequence of these measures, Arianism disap- 
peared speedily from the Roman empire. 
Ebionism and Gnosticism. 

While the large Christian church had to an 
extent been influenced by heathen and Jewish 
ideas, there were a few sects or systems of teach- 
ing which, although professedly Christian, were 
almost throughout Jewish and heathen, having, 



Ebionism and Gnosticism. 71 

however, been somewhat influenced by the gos- 
pel. The most notable among them were the 
Ebionites and the Gnostics of the second and 
third centuries. 

The Ebionites were baptized Jews. Striving 
to be saved by keeping the law, they rejected 
the principle of salvation by grace. They did 
not believe in the divinity of Christ, and can, 
therefore, not be classed as Christians. The 
Gnostics, on the other hand, at least, the more 
radical of them, remained heathen, although 
they had received baptism. Their leaders did 
not accept the Bible as a revelation of God, but 
claimed for their system of teaching a phil- 
osophical basis. Gnosticism abounds in strange 
propositions, such as this, that matter had not 
been created by God, although its existence was 
not denied (some believed it to have been 
created by Satan), and other claims of similar 
strain too unprofitable to mention. Their teach- 
ing has much in common on the one hand with 
modern so-called Christian Science, and on the 
other hand with Rationalism. They were 
divided into different schools of which the Ma- 
cionites and the Manichaeans were the most 
noted. 

The Catacombs. 

The catacombs are long and narrow subter- 
ranean passages, excavated generally in hills, 
for the burial of the dead of Christian antiquity. 



7% History of Christianity. 

Their purpose was not, as was formerly 
believed, to serve as a place of refuge in times of 
persecution. The narrowness of these passages 
excludes the supposition that the primitive 
Christians assembled in them for worship. 
Hundreds of thousands of the early Christians 
are buried there. The importance of the cat- 
acombs arises mainly from the inscriptions and 
the symbols and pictures found in them. 
Faith, Life, and Practice During this Period. 

Great changes in the teaching and practice of 
the church took place during the period from 
A. D. 160 to A. D. 337. The church of the close 
of this period, approving of and submitting to a 
hierarchy, or priest rule, and consenting, as it 
did, to be united with the Roman state, presents 
a picture differing far from that of the apostolic 
church. It should be noted that as far as the 
primitive principles could be reconciled to the 
new order of things, they were retained un- 
changed. Thus the great fundamental doc- 
trines of Christianity which bear no direct rela- 
tion to practical life were retained; as for 
instance, the doctrine of God, of the Trinity, of 
man and his fall, of redemption through Christ, 
etc. On the other hand, the teachings which 
relate to individual salvation and Christian liv- 
ing were radically changed. 

Few other doctrines underwent so thorough a 
change as that regarding the nature, the qual- 



Faith, Life and Practice. 73 

ities and the office of the church. The fact is 
that the apostolic idea of the church was rejected 
and a new doctrine was introduced in its stead. 

It is clear from the New Testament that the 
Lord as well as the apostles in speaking of a 
church had reference to a congregation of Chris- 
tians, or, using the word in a general sense, to 
the congregations taken collectively. The 
Greek word which in the New Testament is 
translated church is "ekklesia" which means a 
congregation. Other New Testament expres- 
sions designating the church are, "the believ- 
ers," "the brethren, " "the saints," "the body of 
Christ," etc. It is needless to say that the apos- 
tles, in writing of the church or addressing the 
churches, had reference to the congregations of 
Christians. This principle, however, that the 
church is the congregation (or the congrega- 
tions), w T as toward the close of this period 
rejected. As the wicked king, Louis XIV., of 
France, at one time said to his prime minister, 
"I am the state," so the priesthood or clergy 
now advanced the claim, "I am the church." 
They usurped for themselves all the authority 
originally vested in the congregation, and a 
great deal more besides. 

During this period the doctrine was developed 
that the foremost constituent of a church is by 
all means the priest. It was held to be impos- 
sible to become a Christian or be saved without 



74 History of Christianity. 

the mediatorship of a priest. The congregation 
was in every particular dependent on the priest, 
but the priest in no wise on the congregation, 
for under the state-church system even the sup- 
port of the priest came from the state. Not in 
any sense did the priest have his authority from 
the congregation, nor did he act in the name of 
the congregation, as was the case in the instance 
of the ministers of early Christendom. Those 
constituting the congregation had no voice what- 
ever in matters spiritual or religious, 

A new doctrine was also developed concerning 
the purity of the church. This quality of the 
church was claimed to be no longer dependent on 
the congregation but on the priest; not, however, 
on the purity of the priest himself, but on the 
authority and the power which was professedly 
vested in him. In primitive Christendom purity 
or holiness of the church meant nothing else but 
purity of those who constitute the congregations. 
During the fourth century, however, the doctrine 
was developed that the church could be and 
indeed was pure, even if the members lived in 
open and heinous sin. It was the office of the 
priesthood, with their sacraments, to keep the 
church pure. Their claim was that as long as 
their baptismal water had the virtue to cleanse 
from all sin, and as long as the partaking of the 
communion or Eucharist, coupled with the abso- 
lution, was efficient to remove the sins which 



Faith, Life and Practice. 75 

may be committed after baptism, the predicates 
of purity and holiness could be claimed by the 
church. Did not the church possess purity, at 
any event, on Easter morning, when the sins of 
all the members had been forgiven? And, 
besides, there were always some members of the 
-church who lived holy lives. 

If we inquire into the New Testament teach- 
ing on this subject, we find that although the 
arostles put forth their best effort to keep the 
church pure and ' 'unspotted from the world, { 
-although they enjoined strict discipline upon the 
congregations, they did not hold that the church 
had reached, or ever could reach a state of pu- 
rity where improvement is no longer possible. 
This fact, now that the purity and holiness of 
the church upon earth can never reach a perfect 
state, was by the church fathers, and particu- 
larly by Augustine, advanced as the principal 
argument for no longer striving to maintain the 
actual purity of the congregations. Upon this 
argument they based their claim that excom- 
munication ought to take place only in the case 
of heresy. 

As some nominal Christian is apt to make a 
cloak for living in known sin and transgression 
out of the fact that perfection in holiness can 
never be reached, so the professedly Christian 
church manufactured a similar cloak to hide 
their disgrace. Henceforth, those who held that 



76 History of Christianity. 

the church should in a practical way strive for 
purity and holiness were stigmatized as heretics 
and dangerous enthusiasts, on the ground 
that they endeavored to attain to something 
which any sane person must believe is impos- 
sible to be realized. Henceforth, the belief in 
the actual corruption and theoretical holiness of 
the church was made a test of orthodoxy. 
Men who could show that the church might be 
very wicked, as she actually was, and yet be 
the true church of Christ, were now in demand. 
It was forbidden upon penalty of death to prove 
the contrary. 

Let, however, no one suppose from the posi- 
tion he took in this question that Augustine 
personally loved sin or desired to see the church 
corrupt — far from it. The true reason why he 
advanced those claims concerning the purity of 
the church is because such an opinion only 
could be reconciled with state churchism. It is 
Constantine, the heathen, who is to blame for 
this opinion of Augustine. To hold views in 
opposition to state churchism would, at Augus- 
tine's time, have meant severe persecution; 
and to cause a division of the church under any 
circumstances, was to the mind of the church 
fathers a great calamity. Had not Paul also, 
warned for schisms and divisions? He had 
ndeed, if, however, the only alternative would 
have been the approval of state churchism and 



Faith, Life and Practice. 77 

the abolishment of discipline, Paul would, 
without doubt, have been the first one to make 
a division. 

The pernicious doctrine, that the church has 
the right to be corrupt and that it is heresy and 
fanaticism to insist on the enforcement of disci- 
pline, is largely to blame for the fact that Chris- 
tendom had in so great a degree lost its char- 
acteristics of being the salt of the earth and the 
light of the world. 

The idea that much learning, or the acquire- 
ment of "higher education" is necessary for the 
understanding of the Scriptures is foreign to 
primitive Christendom. Such an opinion would 
have been considered absurd by the early Chris- 
tians. The way of salvation and godliness was 
believed to be made very plain in the Bible, and 
was held to be understood better as the 
believer advanced further in personal Christian 
experience, for it was believed that the Holy 
Ghost was received in the same measure. It 
would, however, be a mistake to suppose that 
ignorance was in any way encouraged. The 
apostles, it should be observed, although they 
were common tradesmen, had sufficient educa- 
tion to enable them to use their own language 
correctly. 

During the primitive period, as long as apos- 
tolic spirituality prevailed, and even later, there 
was no thought of making ' 'higher education" 



78 History of Christianity. 

a requisite for the ministry of the gospel. 
Under the state-church system however, by far 
the most important qualification of candidates* 
for the ministry was the evidence of having 
studied the official theology. He who had not 
taken a course in theology, it was held, could 
not understand things religious, or have any 
voice whatever in them. Those constituting the 
congregations, the laity, as they were in course 
of time designated, were obliged to take their 
knowledge of spiritual things second-hand from 
the priest. It may be well to observe here that 
in the great reformatory movements of later 
centuries, such as the Anabaptist and Wesleyan 
movements, when personal salvation and holi- 
ness was again written on the banner of the 
church, the apostolic standpoint in this question 
was found to be the only one tenable. Then, as 
in apostolic times, mere learning counted for 
nothing. The men in demand were those who 
had a call from God, who possessed a knowledge 
of the Word, and were full of the Holy Ghost. 
The New Testament doctrine of the spiritual 
priesthood was found to be out of harmony 
with the prevailing corruption of the church. 
The idea of a priestly class or cast whose office 
is to be mediators between the Deity and man, 
seems to have been too deeply rooted in the 
heathen and Jewish mind; it found its way into 
the Christian church. The next point in order 



Faith, Life and Practice. 79 

was to find for the new priesthood a way to offer 
sacrifices for the sins of the people. This ques- 
tion was found not an easy one to dispose of. 
An introduction of animal sacrifices could not be 
thought of. The conviction of the sufficiency of 
the great sacrifice which had been offered on 
Calvary was too closely interwoven with Chris- 
tian thought to be entirely discarded 

A way out of the difficulty was, however, 
found in the claim that it is necessary for the 
priesthood to repeat the sacrifice ol Calvary. 
The bread of the Lord's Supper was taken to be 
not merely an emblem of the body of the Lord, 
but was believed to be the Lord himself. Con- 
sequently it was held that the bread of the 
Eucharist should be adored, or worshiped, as 
Christ himself. In the new way of celebrating 
the Lord's supper, designated as the mass, 
Jesus was, by the priest, claimed to be again 
offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the profess- 
ing Christians. The monstrous idea that Jesus 
himself is the victim for the sacrifices of the 
new Christian priesthood was adopted, the 
priest taking the part which Pilate and the 
Roman soldiers had acted on Calvary. 

A priestly class who were in a literal sense te 
offer sacrifices, made a literal altar and a sanct- 
uary necessary. In early Christendom there 
had been no thought of building for the Lord 
temples of stone. Very true, God had under 



80 History of Christianity. 

the Old Covenant commanded Solomon to build 
the Temple and dedicate it with much ceremony. 
This Temple was a necessary requirement for 
the Old Testament ceremonial worship which 
has a typical significance for the New Dispensa- 
tion. The Lord Jesus predicted that the Tem- 
ple should be destroyed, for the antitype, pre- 
figured by the Temple, was now about to come. 
The antitype is the spiritual temple, namely, 
the church, or, in a sense, the individual believer. 
This is emphatically taught in the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures. (See 1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; 1 Cor. 
6: 19; 2 Cor. 6: 16; Eph. 2: 21; 1 Tim. 3: 16; 1 
Pet. 2: 5, etc.) The necessity of houses conven- 
ient for the united worship of a congregation 
must indeed soon have been felt, but the proto- 
type for such houses was found not in the Tem- 
ple but in the Synagogue. 

The spiritual or New Testament view of the 
house of God was during this period lost sight 
of. The church had become too corrupt and 
worldly for such teaching. Stone temples were 
built, and while under the state-church system, 
it was impossible to maintain the purity of the 
spiritual temple, it was an easy matter to keep 
the temples of stone in the best of condition. 
Constantine, the new leader in church affairs, 
never concerned himself about the purity of the 
congregations, but gave great sums of money 
out of the state treasury toward building mag- 



Faith, Life and Practice. 81 

nificent Christian temples or churches, and even 
heathen temples were converted into churches. 

After emperor Gallienus' edict of toleration 
had been published, large and, in some 
instances, even costly houses of worship were 
built. Beginning with the age of Constantine, 
the opinion was advanced that the houses of 
worship should be temples, furnished with as 
much show and display as possible. Altars 
were erected in them, upon which the new 
priesthood were to offer their sacrifice. And 
the place of the altar was considered the Most 
Holy, and surrounded by a barrier. The 
laity were under all circumstances forbidden 
to enter the most holy place. Later, they were 
not allowed even to enter a church, except they 
had sanctified themselves by the sprinkling of 
holy water. The people, it must be conceded, 
behaved well in the sanctuary, where the pre- 
sence of God was supposed to be, but outside of 
it, alas, the holy water appeared to lose its 
virtue. 

The mass, or the offering of the new sacrifice 
by the priesthood, came to be considered the 
principal part of the service of God. In early 
Christendom, it was held, as is clear from the 
New Testament, that, in the preaching of the 
Word or the attendance of it, it is God who 
serves the believer, rather than the believer 
serving God, and that the service of God con- 



82 History of Christianity. 

sists in living up to the gospel teachings. In 
consequence of the union of the church and the 
state, however, and the abolishment of disci- 
pline, it had soon to be acknowledged that the 
mass of the congregations fell far short from 
serving God in their daily life, and this fact 
was accepted as a necessary evil. It was, how- 
ever, held that for this very reason the priest 
must bring the daily sacrifice, on the strength 
of which the church continued to be the church 
of God in spite of her corruption. The celebra- 
tion of the mass was held to be the daily service 
of God. 

In heathendom, an important factor in serving 
the gods and fighting wrong had been the 
employment of art in the service of religion. 
Many beautiful temples had been built and filled 
with rare treasures of art. such as paintings and 
works of sculpture. The church fathers were 
ready to admit that this way of combating evil 
had not proved effective, but they attributed the 
cause for the failure to the fact that the temples 
and works of art had been dedicated to idols 
instead of God. To build beautiful churches 
and fill them, as much as possible with costly 
works of art, was consequently, all through the 
Dark Ages, considered one of the most effective 
ways to serve God and fight the devil. 

Under the new order of things ritualism w r as 
a natural development. To Constantine, as far 



Ritualism. 83 

as is known, belongs the doubtful honor of 
introducing sacerdotal vestments, or peculiar 
gorgeously wrought priestly dresses, to be used 
in saying mass. He presented the bishop Maca- 
rius of Jerusalem with a splendid vestment of 
that kind, wrought in gold. Later such vest- 
ments were required to be blessed and conse- 
crated by a bishop. Liturgies or fixed forms 
and formulas for what was called the daily ser- 
vice of God were also introduced at Constantine's 
time. It is worthy of notice that although the 
passages of the mosaic law, having reference to 
the Old Testament priesthood, were quoted by 
the church fathers in support of ritualism, the 
introduction of it into the church was not due to 
Jewish or Old Testament, but wholly to hea- 
thenish influences. 

At the present time there is a tendency on the 
part of many to look upon ritualism as, at least, 
a harmless custom. The introduction of un- 
christian forms of worship, however, is evident- 
ly fraught with grave dangers. Ritualism is 
always an indication of a deficiency in spirit- 
uality. There are millions who regularly attend 
churches, built and furnished in a magnificent 
style; they sprinkle themselves with holy water, 
say their prayers, see and hear the priest who, 
dressed in splendid holy robes, performs myste- 
rious religious ceremonies and speaks solemnly 
in a sacred language which they do not under- 



84 History of Christianity. 

stand; they listen to the music and the jingling 
of the consecrated bells; they see the "eternal 
light" burning in the dusk of the church, the 
air is tilled with incense or holy smoke; all this 
has the effect to make them feel very solemn. 

If we ask what does all this, in the end, 
amount to, we are told that each motion which 
the priest makes and every step which he takes, 
lias a meaning, as have also the sacerdotal vest- 
ments, five in number, in which the priest is 
robed, etc. We are expected to believe that the 
reason for all this is to teach the people a spirit- 
ual lesson. If this, however, is the end to be 
gained, why, then, are they not given their 
teaching in plain English? Why teaca them by 
signs and motions as if they did not understand 
human speech? The fact is that all the mean- 
ing which is claimed for these ceremonies, 
could be expressed in comparatively few words 
which people understand, while there are indeed 
very few of them who even claim to understand 
what all these ceremonies are supposed to 
mean. The reason why they attend church is 
not, by any means, to be taught a lesson by 
watching the performance of sacerdotal cer- 
emonies- 

The pretended teaching of spiritual truths is 
a poor excuse for ritualism. The true reason 
for it is of a different nature. These mysterious 
sacerdotal ceremonies and usages have the 



Ritualism. 85 

tendency to make people feel solemn and relig- 
ious, and surround them with an air of imagined 
sanctity. Those who are accustomed to these 
ceremonies and know nothing better feel quite 
a longing for them when they are for some time 
circumstanced so that they can not watch those 
performances. They feel in such case as if a 
principal part of their religion w T as gone. By 
giving up ritualism, therefore, the ritualist 
churches would to a great extent lose their 
hold on their people. The people are kept 
under the impression that they are religious 
and take part in the service of God to the extent 
of their attendence upon the sacerdotal perform- 
ances. Ritualism is distinctively a relic of 
heathenism. It is a deception by which men 
make themselves believe that they are Chris- 
tians when what they need is a change of heart 
and holiness of life. 

In the New Testament the terms ' "Christians" 
and "saints" are used as synonyms. In early 
Christendom all Christians w T ere expected to live 
saintly lives. This idea was somewhat modified 
after the middle of the second century. When 
later, under the reign of Constantine and his 
successors, the heathen masses had been admit- 
ted into the church, it was soon realized that 
saints had become scarce. They were, how- 
ever, highly esteemed by the professing Chris- 
tians, and were, after their departure, literally 



86 History of Christianity. 

worshiped. The poor people had formerly 
believed in a multitude of gods, and their belief 
had evidently been little influenced by their 
admission into the church. 

The worship of saints began at the time of 
Constantine. The church fathers, it should be 
observed, made a distinction between praying 
to God and to the saints. They held that while 
God should be worshiped or adored, the aid of 
the departed saints should be invoked in all 
cases of need and their intercession should be 
asked in behalf of the people. The masses, 
however, did not make this distinction, since 
prayer was to be made to the saints as well 
as to God. The difficulty that the departed 
saints are not omnipresent and could there- 
fore not be expected to hear prayer in more 
than one place at a time, did not appear as a 
real obstacle, for in the popular mind the saints 
were in a way considered demigods. Augus- 
tine, however, concedes that there is a difficulty 
in regard to this, and admits his inability to 
solve it even by theological speculation. Not- 
withstanding this, he was decidedly in favor of 
praying to the saints, although not of worship- 
ing them. 

It was Constantine who led the way in the new 
departure of dedicating churches to saints and 
angels. He built a church near Constantinople 
to the archangel Michael. The date of the 



The Support of the Church* 87 

death of each saint was celebrated by particular 
exercises of worship; the people, however, 
observed the festivals of the saints by popular 
amusements, similar to the feasts of their 
former heathen gods. 

The support of the church and of the minis- 
try was up to the time of Constantine entirely 
on the voluntary principle. The ministers of 
the gospel received only voluntary contributions 
from the members of the church, and the Chris- 
tians were for the most part poor. Many of the 
ministers turned to agriculture or some trade 
for their support. To follow a call to the min- 
istry meant to become willing to lead a life of 
self sacrifice. For their reward they had the 
promises of God, having reference mainly to the 
life to come. After the church had been united 
with the state, the clergy received a fixed 
income from the imperial treasuries and from 
church funds which were subsequently created. 
Many who formerly could not have been induced 
by all the promises of God to enter the ministry 
as his servants now became willing to serve the 
church. The ministerial calling came to be 
looked upon as any other profession. During 
the Dark Ages every step which the clergy took 
toward the salvation of any body was expected 
to be paid for in money. 

The New Testament Scriptures teach a sep- 
aration of Christians from the world. This was 



88 History of Christianity. 

understood by the early church to mean that 
Christians should not be conformed to the world 
(Rom. 12: 2), that they should refuse to have a 
part in the vanity and materialism of those who 
live as if this earth were the true destiny of 
man. To influence those who were unconverted 
was considered one of the objects of a holy life. 
The Christians were to be the light of the world 
and the salt of the earth. Afterwards, through 
the union of the church and state, and the con- 
sequent blending of things divine and worldly, 
the principle of separation from the world could 
no longer be maintained. The church had 
become worldly and under the state church sys- 
tem there was no way to remedy it. 

After the distinction between the church and 
the world had been wiped out and the church 
had become corrupt, the idea was advanced that 
separation from the world means a separation 
from human society. Men took up the life 
of hermits in the wilderness or forest. Paul of 
Thebes in Egypt is sometimes said to have been 
the first Christian hermit. There is, however , 
little trustworthy information as to his life. 
Anthony, who lived in the Egyptian desert, is 
generally considered the father of monasticism 
or monkery. He died in 356 at a ripe old age. 
The hermits soon concluded that it was better 
for them to live together in groups. They built 
for themselves houses, called cloisters or 



Monasticism.. 89 

monasteries, and surrounded them by high walls 
to shut out the world and the devil. They were 
concerned about their own salvation, but rather 
indifferent as to the good of the rest of mankind. 

The first hermits or monks were earnest 
Christians who desired to live holy lives. In 
course of time, however, the cloisters degener- 
ated until in some cases they had become dens 
of vice. It was believed that those who lived 
outside of the cloister walls could nob avoid doing 
many sinful things, but the monastery life was 
not held to be a condition of salvation, it being 
considered only as a safeguard against sinful 
contamination. Those outside of the cloisters 
were supposed to be saved in death, if they con- 
fessed all their sins and w r ere absolved or for- 
given by a priest. 

The word "sacramentuni" or sacrament had 
in heathen times been used, principally, to des- 
ignate the oath which was required of every 
newly enlisted soldier. After the union of the 
church and state had been accomplished, the 
performance of what was considered as Chris- 
tian duty was taken as a token, also, of loyalty 
to the emperor and the state. The observance 
of the Christian ordinances was, therefore, a 
vow or guarantee of faithfulness to the emperor 
and the state religion. In consequence of this, 
as well as in reference to the spiritual Christian 
warfare, the Christian ordinances were called 
sacraments. 



90 History of Christianity. 

From Tertullian's writings it is evident that 
there was at his time a diversity of opinion as 
to infant baptism. Seme held that infants 
ought to be baptized, while others, including 
Tertullian himself, would sanction only baptism 
of adults. There is historical evidence that 
from Tertullian's time to the end of this period 
there were those who believed in the validity of 
infant baptism, while others rejected it. The 
mode of baptisfri during this period was immer- 
sion. 

The miraculous powers of the apostolic age 
continued to operate till the end of the second 
century. The most notable manifestation of the 
same was in the healing of the sick through 
prayer. There are, however, no traces to be 
found in early Christendom, of the notion that 
all sickness is of the evil one, or that there is 
any wrong in the use of medicine. After Con- 
stantine's time a new method of working mir- 
acles was employed, namely, by means of relics 
of the saints and martyrs. Miraculous power 
was ascribed to such relics. 

After the middle of the second century each 
congregation had, as a rule, one pastor who was 
designated as the bishop. The presbyters were 
the assistants of the pastor. The bishops of 
that early age derived their authority from the 
congregation. As late as A. D. 250, Cyprian (p. 
58) asserts that he never does anything belong- 



Church Polity. 91 

ing to his office except with the consent of the 
congregation. Cyprian, however, ai pears to 
have been the last to uphold this principle. 
There was a growing tendency to place a num- 
ber of congregations under the oversight of one 
bishop, particularly at the time of Constantine, 
when many new congregations were estab- 
lished. With the development of a priestly 
class or hierarchy which claimed for itself the 
authority originally vested in the congregation, 
the laity had no longer a voice in the ordination 
or calling of the clergy. The presbyters were 
henceforth designated as priests. 

The "Metropolitans," that is, the bishops of 
the capital cities of the provinces, claimed the 
right to preside in provincial synods and to 
ordain the bishops of the province. But above 
all, the bishops, of the cities where the apostles 
themselves had labored, were in course of time 
held in the highest regard, particularly those of 
the great capital cities , of Jerusalem, Antioch, 
Alexandria and Rome. These, together with the 
bishop of Constantinople, were called Patri- 
archs, later, also, archbishops. They stood 
above the Metropolitans in the same way as the 
latter were placed in authority over the other 
bishops. The priests derived their authority 
from the bishops. For the deacons the desig- 
nation "Levites" came into use. A number of 
lower offices were created, such as sub-deacons, 
readers, excorists, etc. 



92 History of Christianity. 

A curious idea concerning the universality of 
the church began to prevail. Being united with 
the church, the Roman empire was held to be 
invincible. It was expected that it would, in 
course of time, comprise the whole world. The 
other nations of the world were, in the course of 
time to be conquered, and the religion of the 
state forced upon them, and the realization of 
this was held to be the Millenniam. The prim- 
itive Christians had looked for the return of 
Christ to reign with the saints for a thousand 
years. But now it was held that the beginning 
of the Millennium had come with Constantme. 

Christendom was, however, spared the dis- 
grace of having that Millennium, the idea of 
w T hich had been hatched in the brain of heathen 
Constantine, fully realized. Instead of con- 
quering other nations, the Roman state found 
itself after Constantine, on a steady decline. 
Rome was repeatedly taken by barbarian 
nations, until only a mere shadow of her former 
greatness was left. Augustulus, the last one to 
bear the title of emperor, was deposed in 476. 
When, how r ever, under Charlemagne (Charles 
the Great), in the ninth century, a new Roman 
empire had been created, some of the barbarian 
nations were subdued and the so called Chris - 
tian religion was forced upon them by the 
sword. 



HI. 
The Great Period of Darkness* 

A. D. 337 to A. D. 1170. 

In consequence of the baptism of the heathen 
masses under Constantine and his sons, the state 
church lost what was yet left of the apostolic 
standard of life and practice. Those who were 
truly pious separated themselves, for the most 
part, from the worldly church, fleeing into the 
wilderness as hermits and monks. Christianity 
came to be looked upon by the masses as mainly 
a matter of religious ceremonies and forms. 
Yet it is evident that the new state religion was 
an improvement on Roman heathenism. Even 
through the darkest periods there were those, 
small as their number may have been; who were 
Christians not merely nominally or on the 
ground that they observed certain forms and 
ceremonies, but "in deed and in truth, " meager 
though their knowledge of gospel truth was. 
But the moral tone of society in general was 
also raised by the new professedly Christian 



94 History of Christianity. 

state religion. This is evident from certain his- 
torical facts, such as the abolition of the glad- 
itorial shows. In these bloody shows human 
beings, mostly prisoners of war, killed one an- 
other by the hundreds and thousands, or were 
killed in fights with wild beasts, for the amuse- 
ment of the spectators. In primitive Christen- 
dom the attendance of such places, as well as 
of other popular amusements, was forbidden. 
Later, professing Christians indulged in attend- 
ance upon these things. The gladiatorial shows 
were abolished in the fifth century. 

Political History of this Period. 

The three sons of Constantine — Constantine 
II., Constans, and Constantius — agreed, after 
the death of their father, to divide the empire 
among themselves. Like Athaliah (2 Kings 1 1) 
they, after the manner of oriental despots, put 
to death all the ' 'royal seed," i. e., the kindred 
of their father, sparing only two nephews of 
Constantine, Gallus and Julian, on account of 
their youth and sickness. Three years later a 
bloody war for the sole supremacy began among 
the three brothers. In 350 Constantius became 
sole emperor, the two other brothers having 
been slain. 

The sons of Constantine, in their private life, 
gave grave offence. They, however, prohibited 
all heathen w T orship upon penalty of death. 
Some heathen temples were pillaged by them,. 



Political History. 95 

and the booty given partly to the church and 
partly to their eunuchs and women. Other tem- 
ples were turned over to the church. The 
masses of the people now united Avith the 
church. The old heathenism was in no wise 
worthy of suffering persecution for its sake. 

After the death of Constantius, in 361, his 
cousin Julian came to the throne. Julian had 
come to the conclusion that the religion of his 
royal cousins was not a whit better than hea- 
thenism, nay, that it was rather inferior to it. He 
undertook to make Roman heathenism once 
more the religion of the state. Julian is known 
in history as "the Apostate." The fact, how- 
ever, is that he had never been a Christian at 
heart, although he had been baptized and had 
professed adherance to the religion of the state. 
He evidently belonged to that class of supposed 
backsliders, of whom an American evangelist 
said that "they had never slid forward." He 
was a heathen, and after his accession to the 
throne, professed to be nothing else, while the 
sons of Constantine, who were worse characters 
than he, disgraced Christendom by their very 
claim of being Christians. 

Julian reinstated the worship of the gods at 
public expense, and did all in his power to pro- 
mote the same. The so-called heretics, as for 
instance, the Montanists and Donatists, who 
had previously been persecuted, now enjoyed 



96 History of Christianity. 

toleration, the same as the Catholic church. 
Julian refrained from persecution of the Chris- 
tians for the same reason for which Constantine 
had formerly tolerated heathenism (p. 51). He 
died after a short reign of two years. Accord- 
ing to a later and somewhat doubtful account 
his last words were: "Galilean, thou hast con- 
quered !" 

After Julian there was an unbroken succes- 
sion of professedly Christian emperors. One of 
the most notable of them was Theodosius (392- 
395). After his death, the empire was divided 
into two parts, namely, an eastern empire with 
Constantinople as its capital city, and a western 
empire, the capital of which was Rome. The 
latter existed only to the year 476, when the last 
Roman emperor was deposed. The eastern 
empire continued to exist down to the year 1453 
when Constantinople was, after a long siege, 
captured by the Mohammedan Turks. While 
the western or Roman empire crumbled to v 
pieces, the Teutonic tribes of northern and 
western Europe gradually accepted a form 
of Christianity and civilization. Many of these 
tribes or nations were united under one govern- 
ment by Pepin, the father of Charlemagne. In 
the year 800 Charlemagne (Charles the Great) 
was by the pope, Leo III., in Rome, crowned 
emperor of what was henceforth designated as 
the Holy Roman Empire, comprising nearly all 



Popery. 97 

western Europe. Among the successors of 
Charlemagne, Otho the Great (936-973), and 
Henry IV. (1056-1106), deserve mention, the lat- 
ter having become noted for his conflict with 
pope Gregory VII. 

Popery. 
The first pope in the strict sense of the word 
was Leo I. (A. D. 440-461). Previous to his 
reign the five patriarchs (p. 91) were recognized 
as the highest authorities in the church, or the 
heads of the hierarchy. There was, it is true, 
a tendency on the part of the bishops (patri- 
archs) of Rome to hold that they should have a 
preference in honor, if not in authority, before 
the other patriarchs, but this claim was time 
and again re udiated by other patriarchs and 
bishops. The first, however, to fully and in a 
measure successfully assert the claim of popery, 
i. e., that the bishop of Rome is the head of 
all Christendom, was Leo. He held that any 
authority which is exercised in Christendom, 
be it by a patriarch, bishop or priest, was 
derived from him. He vindicated the unscript- 
ural doctrine that Peter had been the head of 
the church, or a pope, and the other apostles 
had derived their authority from Peter. This 
supposed authority, it was claimed, had passed 
from Peter to the bishops of Rome. The pope, 
as the successor of Peter, was the rock on which 



98 History of Christianity. 

the church was built. To be grounded on the 
rock meant to acknowledge the so-called "holy 
father" in Rome as the head of the church, 
and be obedient to him. A church which failed 
to acknowledge this, could not stand, it was 
held, for any length of time. Such was the 
claim and boast of popery, which was, after 
much protest, gradually accepted by the state 
church of the Western empire (later of the 
* 'Holy Roman Empire' '). The Eastern (or Greek) 
church, however, has never fully acknowledged 
it and is to this day governed by patriarchs. 

One of the most influential of the popes was 
Gregory I., the Great (A. D. 590-604), who in 
proud humility, called himself "the servant of 
the servants of God." He is considered the 
last of the church fathers. 

Pope Stephen III., in 755, when hard pressed 
by the Lombards who were the political masters 
of Italy, called upon Pepin, king of the Franks 
and father of Charlemagne (p. 92) to come to 
his aid. The pope wrote to the Prankish king 
admonishing and commanding him in the name 
of Peter and the holy Mother of God to save 
the city of Rome from the detested enemies. 
He promised him long life and the most glorious 
mansions in heaven, if he speedily obeyed, and 
threatened with excommunication if Pepin 
should delay. Apparently Pepin acknowledged 
the blasphemous assumptions of thetpope, for 



founding of the Papal State. 99 

he crossed the Alps with his army, defeated 
the Lombards and bestowed the conquered terri- 
tory, comprising twenty-one cities, upon the 
pope. This was the founding of the so-called 
Patrimony of St. Peter, a territory of which 
Rome was the capital city and over which the 
popes reigned as worldly princes. As such 
they were, even in secular matters, not subject 
to any other authority. The popes continued, 
with a few interruptions, to be the independent 
rulers of this territory down to the year 1870, 
when under king Victor Emmanuel, of Sardinia* 
the whole of Italy, with Rome as the capital 
city, was united into a civil kingdom. 

The successors of Stephen III. were, how- 
ever, not satisfied to be temporal potentates, 
merely over the so-called estate of the church. 
Since things temporal are of less importance 
than spiritual things, and should therefore be 
subordinate to them, the popes, as the rulers in 
spiritual things, put forth the claim that the 
temporal princes should be subordinate to the 
professed successors of Peter. They held con- 
sequently that the kings and potentates of the 
earth derived their authority from them, the 
same as the bishops of the church. The popes 
pretended to be the representatives of God on 
the earth, in whom all power and authority is 
vested. They hoped to convert all the world 
to popery and to unite the whole human family 

LofC. 



100 History of Christianity. 

into a so-called theocracy, of which they were 
to be the absolute head. The full realization of 
this was, in their opinion, the consummation of 
the millennium. 

The first to advance these ideas and make 
all these claims was Hildebrand, who reigned 
as pope under the name of Gregory VII. 
(A. D. 1073-1085). Henry IV. was at that 
time emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire' ' 
(p. 96). Henry did not feel inclined to approve 
of the pretensions of Hildebrand, and soon the 
two powers found themselves engaged in a 
sharp conflict in which the papacy, for a 
time, was triumphant. The pope finally ex- 
communicated Henry, forbidding his subjects 
to acknowledge allegiance to him. In conse- 
quence of this, Henry found himself abandoned 
by his princes and people. Having resolved 
on penitence he crossed the Alps and found 
Hildebrand at the castle of Canossa. Clothed 
in a penitential robe, the mightiest prince of 
Christendom had to stand for three days in the 
castle yard of Canossa, until the pope admitted 
him to his presence and absolved him (A. D. 
1077). He had to acknowledge the superior 
authority of the pope by holding the stirrup of 
Hildebrand's saddle. 

Apparently, however, Henry repented only 
in order to be enabled to avenge himself. The 
princes of the empire felt it a disgrace that the 



Popery- 101 

pope had compelled the emperor to submit to 
such humiliation. When the pope later again 
excommunicated Henry, the ban proved ineffec- 
tive. Henry entered Italy with a large army and, 
after much bloodshed, captured Rome, deposed 
the pope and set up an antipope (Clemens III). 
Hildebrand fled without, however, yielding in 
any of his pretensions. He died in the follow- 
ing year in Salerno. 

The great emperor Frederick I. found him- 
self, after much resistance, obliged to kiss the 
foot of the pope and hold the stirrup of his 
saddle (1177). The close of this darkest period 
(the latter part of the twelfth century) finds the 
papacy at the height of its power. 

The popes differed vastly from each other in 
executive ability and moral character. Some 
were talented statesmen; some were strict in 
their own lives and even devout. Others gave 
grave offense in their conduct, while still others 
lived in shameful vices. 

The year 904 marks the beginning of the so- 
called papal pornocracy,oneof the most corrupt 
periods of popery. An energetic woman of 
high rank and of the vilest character, named 
Theodora, succeeded in filling the papal chair 
with her favorites. They turned the residence 
of the professed successors of Peter into a 
harem. Such conditions continued during the 
greater part of that century. Pope John XII. 



102 History of Christianity. 

was, after a reign of eight years, deposed in 963 
through the influence of emperor Otho the 
Great. Among the charges brought against 
him, were, that he had consecrated a boy of ten 
years a bishop, was a gambler and a drunkard, had 
committed murder and other vices too atrocious 
and numerous to mention. Before the synod of 
investigation convened, this head of the church 
had left for parts unknown, carrying with him 
the portable part of the treasury of St. Peter. 

The Church Fathers of this Period. 

The greatest and most influential of the 
church fathers — Augustine, Jerome, and others 
— belong to the first part of this period. Cath- 
olic theology has been made preeminently by 
these men, or more accurately, the teaching of 
the church, at least as concerns practical piety, 
has been largely determined by prevailing con- 
ditions, such as the union of church and state, 
and these men have become famous for finding 
and collecting all possible arguments to show 
that the teaching of the church was right. 
Even the great leaders in the Protestant Refor- 
mation, Luther and Calvin, had for some of 
their teaching no other foundation than the 
theology of the church fathers, particularly of 
Augustine. This, by the way, accounts for the 
fact that the Reformation was to a large extent 
unsuccessful in accomplishing an actual refor- 
mation of true Christian piety. 



Augustine, 103 

Augustine, the most distinguished and influ- 
ential of the church fathers, was born in 354 
near Hippo in North Africa. His mother, 
Monica, was one of the noblest and most devoted 
women in the history of Christendom; his father 
was a heathen. Notwithstanding the prayers 
of his mother, he, as a youth, refused to become 
a Christian, and for a time he led a profligate 
life. Seeking for something better than sens- 
ual pleasure, he united with the Manichaeans 
(p. 71). His mother continued to pray for him 
and hope for his conversion, which, shortly 
before her death, she was permitted to see. 
Augustine was baptized in 387 at Milan by 
Ambrose who had been largely instrumental in 
his conversion. In 391 he was consecrated 
bishop of Hippo Regius, in which capacity he 
served to the end of his life (430). His influence, 
however, extended over all Western Christen- 
dom. 

In his life Augustine was strict and even 
ascetic. His autobiography, called the "Con- 
fessions ' is the most readable and interesting 
of the writings of the church fathers. It is 
clear from this book that Augustine was truly 
pious, although some of his theological teach- 
ings are without any scriptural foundation 
whatever. It is also clear that in certain points 
he would have taken a different stand, had this 
not necessitated a separation from the great 



104 History of Christianity. 

Catholic church. He is the father of the doc- 
trine of predestination and purgatory and vari- 
ous other dogmas. His writings comprise 
many volumns. 

Jerome, a native of Italy, was baptized in 
360 in Rome. In 379 he was ordained priest in 
Antioch. For a number of years he lived in 
Constantinople and Rome. In 384 he founded 
a cloister at Bethlehem in Palestine, where he 
resided till his death in 420. He was one of the 
most learned and influential of the church 
fathers, but was not free from vanity and had 
a violent temper. He translated the Bible from 
the original tongues into Latin. This version 
is called the Vulgate, and is to this day the 
authorized version of the Roman Catholic 
church. There was, however, a Latin version 
of the Bible, called the Itala in existence before 
the time of Jerome. 

Other church fathers of note were Ambrose, 
Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory 
Nazianzen, and Chrysostom. 

The Pelagian Controversy. 

(on free will and predestination.) 

Pelagius, a learned British monk (born about 
350), taught the principle of free moral agency. 
He held that the will of man is free, and 
whether he be saved or not, depends on his 
own decision. Augustine, the church father 



Pelagian Controversy- 105 

and opponent of Pelagius, on the other hand, 
was by theological speculation led to a belief 
in predestination. The substance of Augus- 
tine's teaching is as follows: The whole human 
family is condemned through the sin of Adam, 
but God in his mercy selects and predestinates 
a number of them for eternal life. His grace is 
for these alone, and it is impossible that they 
should be lost. From the rest of mankind who 
are not predestinated for salvation, God with- 
holds his grace, and will condemn them, even 
if they should die in infancy. The idea of a 
free will of man is, according to Augustine, a 
mere delusion. Individual salvation has noth- 
ing to do with the choosing of man. The grace 
of God (for the elect) is irresistible. The sacra- 
ments, with all their supposed regenerating and 
sanctifying power, are of no benefit to those 
that are not predestinated. 

According to Augustine's teaching, the his- 
tory of mankind would, from a religious and 
spiritual point of view, be little more than a mere 
puppet show. It may appear f r^m a distance as 
if the images in such a show, acted on their own 
accord, but it is a delusion; they are moved by 
an outside force. In Augustine's opinion, man 
has no more free will as to accepting or reject- 
ing salvation than a puppet. It would in that 
case be difficult to understand for what object 
he is placed into this life. The Bible teaches 



106 History of Christianity. 

distinctly that the Lord Jesus died for all man- 
kind; God's love according to the Scriptures, 

includes the whole human family and the call to 
repentance and invitation to accept salvation 
are extended to all. The opinion of Augustine 
makes God responsible for the sin that is com- 
mitted by man, yet He proposes to punish sin. 
In the theological speculations which led him 
to a belief in predestination, Augustine starts 
from the proposition that, since God is the 
almighty Ruler of the universe, everything that 
comes to pass must be included in the will of 
God, that God must will it or it would not come 
to pass. This idea would apparently be cor- 
rect if God had never created man. Had God 
not created a being in his own image, whom he 
gave a free will, a particle of his own authority, 
then there would be no will exercised upon 
earth except the will of God. In that case 
there could, however, be neither sin nor holi- 
ness, for the lower order of creation is not capa- 
ble of either. If God had created a professedly 
holy being which could not sin and which 
would, therefore, be compelled to be supposedly 
holy, that supposed holiness would amount to 
nothing in the sight of God; it would in fact be 
no holiness. It was impossible to create a 
being which should be capable of holiness and 
God-likeness, but not of sin. Whether the earth, 
i. e., mankind be bad or good depended hence- 



Pelagian Controversy. 107 

iorth on the free will of man. Yet God remained 
the Ruler of the world who overruled even the 
wickedness of man, as much as possible, for 
good. 

The thought that the eternal bliss or doom of 
an individual is dependent on his own decision 
during his life upon earth is a grave one. Yet 
the truth is that our influence will count even 
upon the life and destiny of others. Man may 
be influenced for good or evil. It is for every 
individual to accept or reject the grace of God, 
yet there is not the least doubt that many more 
would accept it, if Christians lived more con- 
sistently and did their duty towards the uncon- 
verted. That many are to-day without a knowl- 
edge of the gcspel is not because God wills it 
so, but because Christians fail to live close to 
God, and consequently fail to do their duty. 
And the preaching of the gospel is of compara- 
tively little effect because it is not backed by 
the holy lives of the professors. Many follow 
their own ambitions for- money, or pleasure, or 
honor, instead of living consecrated lives. 
Irreparable loss is always the consequence of 
a failure to do the will of God. 

There arc, regarding the grace of God, two 
convictions, which every truly converted soul 
has. The one is that whatever beginning or 
progress in the new life has been experienced, 
is due to grace; the other is that our spirit- 



108 History of Christianity. 

ual meagreness and failings are due to our 
own unwillingness to accept more of God, 
and be made free from all sin and selfishness. 
This willingness on our part includes a contin- 
ual warfare against sin and self. Man is sin- 
ful by nature. He can not save himself. Yet 
whether he be saved or not depends on his own 
decision. God will save every one who responds 
to his call for repentance and belief in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Although a believer in free grace, Pelagius 
failed to accept some of the foremost principles 
of the gospel. He held that man is not nat- 
urally inclined toward sin, and that justification 
before God is obtained by keeping the law. 
The principle of justification by faith was clear 
neither to him nor to Augustine. Pelagius 
held that man can by his own effort become 
right with God. The grace of God he believed 
to be of benefit in assisting man to live right. 
He failed to realize that to get right with God 
means more than to abstain from open sin. He 
was not aw r are of the sinfulness and deceitful- 
ness of the heart and of the helplessness of 
man. The teaching of the Scriptures that it is 
God and his grace by which man is brought 
"out of the pit of sin," was understood better 
by Augustine than by Pelagius. Yet Augus- 
tine never realized that God is ready to save 
every person who will accept his grace. 



Pelagian Controversy. 109 

Augustine's teaching seems to agree far 
better with state churchism than the opinions 
of Pelagius. While according to the latter, 
only he is a Christian who lives right, in the 
opinion of Augustine the question is simply 
whether an individual is predestinated for sal- 
vation or not, and this question can, as a mat 
ter of fact, not be settled by man. 

Although Augustine was the most influential 
of the church fathers, and the church followed 
his teachings in almost every other point, yet 
his opinion as to predestination was held only 
for a time by the Western church. Later, the 
so-called Semi-Pelagianism, which is a sort of 
compromise between the teachings of Pelagius 
and Augustine, was sanctioned by the Roman 
Catholic church, and has remained the teach- 
ing of that church to the present day. 

The Christological Controversies. 

Christology is the doctrine of the nature and 
person of Christ. In the period from the fourth 
to the seventh century there were controversies 
concerning this doctrine. Nestorius, after 428 
patriarch of Constantinople, held that the 
divine and human natures in Christ were not 
united but were independent of each other. 
This teaching was condemned by a general 
synod at Ephesus, A. D. 431. The Nestorians 
were consequently persecuted in the Roman 



110 History of Christianity. 

empire. They lied to Persia where they flour- 
ished for several centuries. Churches of Nes- 
torians have maintained themselves in the 
mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. They 
reject the worship of Mary, the use of images, 
and the doctrine of the purgatory, but in other 
respects differ little from the Eastern (Greek) 
Catholic church. 

The opposite view from Nestorianism was 
held by the Monophysites, i. e., the believers in 
one nature of Christ. They recognized only 
the divine nature in Christ, and emphasized 
the idea that God had been crucified for us. 
The Catholic church on the other hand, held 
that Christ was human as well as divine and 
that the two natures were united in him. 
Emperor Justin II. , of the Eastern empire, in 
565, issued an edict of toleration in behalf of the 
Monophysites. A number Monophysite churches 
or denominations have maintained themselves 
in the East, namely, the Jacobites of Syria and 
Mesopotamia, the Copts in Egypt, including 
the Abyssinians, the Armenians of Turkey 
(Asia Minor) and other countries, and the Mar- 
onites who inhabit the mountain range of 
Lebanon. These churches are governed by 
patriarchs. Th y can not be said to be more 
evangelical in spirit or more enlightened than 
the large Greek Catholic church, from which 
they differ but little. 



Monasticism. Ill 

Monastlcism. 

The cloisters became more numerous in course 
of time. Some of them assumed the character 
of theological schools. Benedict of Nursia, 
the founder of the cloister of Monte Cassino in 
Italy, was the first to give fixed rules to monas- 
tic life (529). According to these rules each 
novice should be under probation for one year. 
The vow was threefold, comprising obligation 
to poverty (relinquishment of private owner- 
ship), chastity (celibacy), and obedience to the 
abbot. An abbot stood at the head of each 
cloister, having been chosen by the monks out 
of their own midst. Seven times of prayer 
were to be observed daily. The manner of liv- 
ing was to be exceedingly plain. Hospitality 
and care of the poor were considered Christian 
duties. Part of the time was given to agri- 
cultural pursuits. Benedict's sister, Scholas- 
tica, founded cloisters for women. 

Corruption soon entered into the cloisters. 
The monasteries grew wealthy, and with an 
abundance of earthly goods, ease of life and 
immorality prevailed. At times, however, 
reformations of the cloisters were attempted, 
as for instance by Benedict of Aniane (750-821) 
and Odo of Clugny (9^2). The missionaries to 
western and northern Europe were nearly alt 
monks. 



112 History of Christianity. 

Conversion of the Barbarians of Northern 
and Western Europe. 

The Jews, Greeks and Romans had been 
civilized before coming in contact with Chris- 
tianity. The nations of northern and western 
Europe, on the other hand, were barbarians 
before they embraced Christianity, and with it 
civilization. The most notable of them were 
the Celtic, Teutonic and Slavic races. The 
Celtic race comprised the Gauls (of France), the 
ancient Britons, the Scots, the Irish and f he 
Welsh. Some of the principal nations of the 
Teutonic race were the Franks, the Goths, the 
Saxons, the Scandinavians, etc. Of the Slavic 
race, the Bohemians, Poles and Russians are 
notable. 

The conversion of these nations was not a 
conversion in the sense that the individuals 
came to a saving knowledge of Christ. These 
wholesale conversions under the command of 
the leaders of the nations were brought about 
by different means, partly by missionary effort, 
partly also by political influences and in some 
cases even by military force. According to the 
teaching of the church it was baptism which 
had the virtue to change a sinner into a Chris- 
tian. Hence, the missionaries, under whose 
labors northern and western Europe was Chris- 
tianized (most of them were natives of Ireland), 
held that the principal thing to be accomplished 



Conversion of Britain. 113 

was to have the heathen baptized. These mis- 
sionaries could, as a matter of fact, not bring 
them any more light than they themselves had 
received. At any rate, the worship of their 
former idols and many abominable heathenish 
practices ceased. Hereafter they prayed to 
God and the saints, and more or less faithfully 
observed the religious forms of the Catholic 
church. 

Of the Celtic nations the old Britons and the 
southern Gauls (p. 54) were the first to accept 
a form of Christianity. These countries were 
provinces of the Roman empire. As early as 
the reign of Theodosius (p 96) Britain was 
apparently Christianized. After the year 449 
the Angles and the Saxons (Anglo-Saxons) and 
other Teutonic nations began to emigrate from 
what is now northern Germany and Denmark 
to Britain, henceforth also called England, i. e., 
Land of the Angles. These tribes were heathen 
and barbarians, as were all other tribes in the 
parts in which they had formerly dwelt. They 
settled on the beautiful British Isle driving the 
Celtic (Christianized) Britons westward and 
northward, or reducing them to slavery. Hence, 
Britain became, for the most part, once more a 
heathen country. 

The Anglo-Saxons were converted through 
missionaries from Rome. Pope Gregory the 
Great (p. 98), in 596, sent thirty-one monks, to- 



114 History of Christianity. 

gether with one priest, as missionaries to Brit- 
ain. They were well received by Ethelbert, one 
of the Anglo-Saxon kings. This king was 
pleased with the ritualistic display which he 
had witnessed. He consented to be baptized in 
the following year, and gradually drew the peo- 
ple after him. The first archbishop of the 
English nation was ordained in 597 by Vergil ius, 
archbishop of Aries, who had received orders 
to that effect from pope Gregory. In course of 
about one hundred years all the Anglo-Saxon 
kingdoms of Britain, eight in number, accepted 
a form of Christianity and civilization. In 827 
they were united in one nation. 

The first native English scholar was Bede, 
called the Venerable Bede (673-735). He was 
also the father of Anglo Saxon church history. 
One of the greatest English kings was Alfred 
the Great who reigned from 871 to 901. He 
gave his people a code of laws and established 
schools in many places. A part of the Psalter, 
Bede's Church History and other important 
books were translated by himself from the 
Latin into the Anglo-Saxon language. 

Ireland was converted largely through the 
labors of Patrick or Patricius. Patrick had 
been carried to Ireland as a slave. He labored 
as a missionary from A. D. 440-493. One of the 
first nunneries of Ireland was founded by 
Bridget, the most renowned female saint of the 



Clovis, King of the Franks. 115 

Irish. In the twelfth century Ireland was 
invaded and conquered by king Henry II. of 
England. Since that date, British rule has 
been maintained in Ireland. 

A beginning in the conversion of Scotland 
had beea made at an early date. Columba, a 
monk of Ireland (died in 597) is generally con- 
sidered the apostle of the Scots. He was the 
founder of the famous monastery of Iona. 

The first of the Teutonic or Germanic nations 
who were nominally converted to Christianity 
were the Goths. The apostle of the Goths was 
Ulfilas who lived in the fourth century. He 
invented the Gothic alphabet and translated 
the Bible into the Gothic language, although 
only a few of his people had mastered the art 
of reading. Ulfilas and the early Goths were 
Arians (p. 67). 

The Franks, a Teutonic tribe who had invaded 
the country of the (Christianized) Gauls, i. e.^ 
modern France, were converted under their 
king Clovis or Louis who reigned from 481-511*. 
Clovis had married a Christian princess. Before* 
a certain battle he prayed to the God of the 
Christians for aid, promising to submit to bap- 
tism if victorious. Having won that battle, he 
received instruction by Remigius bishop of 
Rheims. When he heard the story of the cru- 
cifixion of Christ, he exclaimed, "Would I had 
been there with my valiant Franks to avenge 



116 History of Christianity. 

him!" In the same year (496) he was baptized 
with his warriors. He, however, although in a 
manner religious, was never a Christian at 
heart. He has become notorious for the crimes 
which he later committed. The descendants of 
Clovis ruled the Frankish kingdom (France) 
until the year 752 when Childeric III., the last 
of that house, was deposed by Pepin, the father 
of Charlemagne (p. 96) who was elected king 
at the same time. 

Charlemagne, one of the greatest of kings 
(A. D. 768-814) conquered nearly all the nations 
and tribes of western and northern continental 
Europe. After his coronation, in Rome, as 
emperor, his great kingdom was known as the 
Holy Roman Empire. A few of the subdued 
nations which had at that time not yet embraced 
Christianity, were compelled by military force 
to accept the religion of the state. Charlemagne 
was a great statesman, who did much toward 
the civilization and education of his subjects. 
One of his chief advisers was the Anglo-Saxon 
scholar Alcuin. The great emperor's descend- 
ants, however, failed to inherit his genius. 
The last of his dynasty died in 911, after which 
the emperors were elected from other German 
dynasties. After the year 843 France had ceased 
to be a part of the empire, existing thereafter 
as an independent state. 

Germany consisted of various states which 



Conversion of Germany. Ill 

before Charlemagne's reign had, with few 
exceptions, been independent. The German 
territory, west of the Rhine had been sub- 
jugated by ancient heathen Rome and had been 
Christianized at any early date. The main part 
of Germany, however, lying east of the Rhine 
river was never conquered by Rome. Every 
attempt to bring the warlike German tribes into 
subjection to Rome had signally failed. Rome 
was the powerful enemy of Germany; hence, 
Roman civilization, and Roman heathenism, 
and later Roman Christianity were detested by 
the Teutons. Later, when Rome had lost its 
power and prestige, the German opposition to 
Christianity slowly abated. Missionaries from 
France, Ireland, Scotland and England entered 
Germany to spread Christianity, and with it 
civilization. Among them w r ere Columbanus of 
Ireland, and his pupil Gallus, (the founder of 
the famous monastery of St. Gall in Switzer- 
land), Severinus, Willebrord, an Anglo-Saxon, 
Clemens, a Scotchman and many others. 

Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon monk who labored 
from 715 to 754 as a missionary in different parts 
of Germany, is known as the apostle of Germany. 
At Geismar in Hesse he cut down the sacred 
oak of the Thunder-god, and built with the 
planks a church of St. Peter. The amazed 
Hessians who witnessed this act lost faith in 
their god. Boniface founded the great mon- 



118 History of Christianity. 

astery of Pulda which under its abbot Sturui 
was the principal seat of learning in Germany- 
He founded many bishoprics, and in 732 was 
raised to the dignity of archbishop by pope Gre 
gory III. He was killed by heathen Friesian 
barbarians in 754. 

Of the various nations of Germany, the Sax- 
ons were among the last to accept Christianity. 
While their kinsmen who had invaded and con- 
quered Britain, had for centuries been Chris- 
tianized, the Saxons of the continent were yet 
fierce and warlike barbarians. They were 
formally converted to Christianity, not by mis- 
sionaries or the power of persuasion but by the 
armies of Charlemagne. The subjugation and 
conversion of the liberty -loving Saxons was the 
work of thirty-three years of bloodshed and cru- 
elty. The army of Charlemagne was too power- 
ful for the Saxons, but as soon as the army was 
gone, they regularly destroyed the churches 
and murdered the priests, for which Charle- 
magne, on his return, would take bloody ven- 
geance. After a certain insurrection he had 
4,500 Saxon prisoners of war beheaded in one 
day. The Saxons were literally driven to bap- 
tism by the army of the Holy Reman Empire. 
Baptism in some instances was little more than 
chasing the people through the river. At 
Paderborn, in 771, they were compelled to swear 
that they would remain faithful upon penalty of 



Mohammedanism. 1 19 

death. Peace was, however, established only 
after ten thousand Saxon families were, in 804, 
driven from house and home and scattered in 
other provinces. 

The modern countries of Denmark, Sweden 
and Norway were inhabited by wild Teutonic 
races, speaking the language that is still spoken 
in Iceland. Ansgar, a native of France, born 
about 800, was the greatest missionary to these 
northern countries. In 846 he was installed 
archbishop of Bremen. The work of Christian- 
ization of these countries was not completed till 
about 1075. 

Of the Slavic nations the Bulgarians and 
Moravians were among the first to embrace 
Christianity. They were Christianized mainly 
through the labors of Methodius and Cyrillus, 
between A. D. 800 and 900. Somewhat later 
the Bohemians and Poles embraced Christian- 
ity. The first Russian ruler to be baptized was 
Vladimir (980-1015). The Hungarians were by 
Otho the Great, compelled to admit mission- 
aries to their country. Of the Slavic nations 
the Wends of north-eastern Germany were 
among the last to accept Christianity. 

Mohammedanism. 

Mohammed, the founder of Islam or Moham- 
medanism, was born about A. D. 570, at Mecca 
in Arabia. He belonged to an Arabic family 
which claimed direct descent from Ishmael. 



120 History of Christianity. 

Although they worshipped idols, the Arabs had 
never lost all knowledge of God. Mohammed 
had, in his youth, been a shepherd. Later, he 
married the rich widow of a merchant. He 
made several journeys, on which he acquired 
an imperfect knowledge of Jewish and Christian 
teachings. He was subject to violent convul- 
sions and epileptic fits which he at first ascribed 
to the working of the evil one, but later to the 
power of God. 

Mohammed, at any rate, became fully con- 
vinced that God, the Creator of heaven and 
earth, alone should be worshipped . Christianity 
with which he never became fully acquainted 
did not attract him, partly for the reason that 
Christians prayed to saints, kneeling before 
their statues. Neither Judaism nor Christian- 
ity (as much as he knew of it) commended itself 
to him; still less, heathenism. 

In his fortieth year ha pretended and seem- 
ingly made himself believe that the angel Ga- 
briel had appeared to him, declaring him to be 
the prophet of God. Later, he resolved upon 
founding a new religion. It is evident that 
Mohammed conceived it as his duty to do away 
with idol worship among his people. He was 
an uncompromising enemy of idolatry. Later, 
he, to a large extent, lost his earnestness of good 
purpose. He became a slave of sensual passion. 
After the year 619 he, in course of time, mar- 



Teachings of Mohammed. 121 

ried fourteen legal wives and had a number of 
slave concubines besides. To his followers he 
allowed not over four wives. He claimed that 
God, by a special revelation, had permitted him 
to indulge in sensuality in a greater degree 
than others, to repay him for his many hard- 
ships. 

For a time Mohammed labored in Mecca, but 
in 622 was forced to flee for his life to Medina. 
This flight marks the beginning of the Moham- 
medan era (July 15, 622). In Medina he gained 
many followers. Eight years later he, at the 
head of a large army of those who believed in 
him, conquered Mecca. In a comparatively 
short time the various tribes of Arabia were 
united by him into a nation, acknowledging 
him as their head. 

The principal teachings of Islam are as fol- 
lows: There is but one God and Mohammed is 
his greatest prophet, although Abraham, Moses 
and Jesus are also acknowledged as prophets* 
God will judge, and reward or punish all men 
in the final judgment. The principal duties of 
man are prayer and ceremonial washings, the 
giving of alms, fasting and pilgrimages to 
Mecca. Every Mohammedan is expected to 
pray five times a day. The use of wine is for- 
bidden. Slavery and polygamy are sanctioned 
in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. 

The Koran sanctions the use of violence in 



122 History of Christianity. 

the spreading of Islam and makes it the duty of 
Moslems (as the Mohammedans call themselves) 
to fight for their faith. "The sword," says 
Mohammed, "is the key of heaven." "A drop 
of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent 
in arms, is of more avail than two months of 
fasting or prayer; whoever falls in battle, his 
sins are forgiven." Hence, the Moslems are 
ever ready to take the sword in the "holy war" 
against the "infidels," as all non-moslems are 
called. Their aim was to conquer the whole 
world by force of arms. The heathen who 
would presist in idolatry were to be put to 
death. The Jews and Christians, on the other 
hand, were to be conquered and given Moham- 
medan rulers, and only those who would refuse 
to submit to Mohammedan civil government 
should be killeJ. Hence, the Eastern Christians 
(Greeks, Armenians, etc..) who are under 
Mohammedan (Turkish) rule, have for these 
many centuries been tolerated, although under 
severe oppression. This, by the w T ay, compares 
favorably with popery, for the popes insisted 
on the destruction of all persistent heretics and 
Moslems in the Catholic countries. 

The Mohammedans fought with desperation 
to extend their dominion. Arabia was con- 
quered during the lifetime of Mohammed. In 
637 Jerusalem, and tw r o years later the whole 
of Syria fell into the hands of his followers. 



Mohammedan Conquests. 123 

Before the year 700 North Africa had been con- 
quered. Thence in 71 1 they invaded Spain and 
founded the Moorish kingdom. When they, 
however, further crossed the Pyrenees moun- 
tains into France, they were in the great battle 
of Tours (732) completely routed by Charles 
Martell, the father of Pepin (p. 96). Thereafter 
Europe was no longer threatened by them from 
the west. In 1492, the year when America was 
discovered by Columbus, the last Moslem 
stronghold in Spain was conquered by king 
Ferdinand. In the subjugated countries many 
professing Christians embraced Islam. In 
North Africa (except Egypt) the Christian 
church w T as wiped out of existence. 

Persia, Asia Minor and northern India had 
been conquered by Moslems at an early date. 
Constantinople, the most important city in 
eastern Europe, had been repeatedly besieged, 
and finally in 1453 was taken by the Moham- 
medan Turks. The great Christian temple of 
St. Sophia was changed into a mosque or 
Mohammedan house of worship. From Con- 
stantinople all Europe was threatened by the 
Moslems. They succeeded in subjugating the 
countries of the lower Danube, including a part 
of Hungary. Vienna, then the capital of Ger- 
many, was twice besieged by them. In 1683 
they were defeated before the walls of Vienna 
by the Polish king John Sobieski. Thereafter 



124 History of Christianity. 

Turkey has steadily lost prestige and much of 
her territory. In our day "the unspeakable 
Turk" is no longer feared. He is in fact "the 
sick man of Europe," who prolongs his exist- 
ence only by the mercy of the other powers. 
Could they come to an agreement as to which 
of them should get Constantinople, the Turkish 
state would ere this have ceased to exist. The 
sultan (or emperor) of Turkey is the spiritual 
head of Mohammedanism. 

A comparison of Mohammed with Christ, or 
of the Koran with the Bible, is out of question. 
Mohammed was a sinner, and he confessed it. 
He was in need of salvation for himself. Moham- 
medanism is the religion of the sword. The 
Christian ideal of love and self-denying sacri- 
fice in the service of others is foreign to Islam. 
The Koran teaches that he who has not the 
opportunity to fight in the "holy war' against 
the "infidels," will miss much of the joys of 
paradise. Hence the eagerness of the Moslems 
to use the sword against non-moslems. The 
present sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II., has 
been styled the assassin on the throne; the fact, 
however, is that the Koran rather than Abdul 
Hamid is primarily to blame for the massacres 
of Christians which occur from time to time in 
Mohammedan countries. All attempts of 
Mohammedanism to get a foothold in America 
have signally failed. Although apparently in 



Image Controversies. 125 

our age no system of teaching can be too absurd, 
but it will find some followers, yet a religion 
which sanctions polygamy does not appear to 
be in demand. 

A Reaction Against Image Worship. 

Images of Christ and the saints had become 
objects of worship both in the Western and 
Eastern churches. The Eastern church con- 
fined images to paintings and the like, prohibit- 
ing the use of statues of stone or wood, while 
the Roman or Western church made no such 
restriction. After the Mohammedan conquests 
in the East, many Christian churches were 
changed into mosques. In such cases all pic- 
tures were carefully scratched from the walls, 
or given a coat of paint. The Greek Catholics 
invoked not only the aid of God and the saints 
against the warlike Mohammedans, but de- 
pended above all on the help of their images. 
It was believed that if everything else failed, 
the Mohammedans could not overcome an army 
carrying such images in their front ranks. The 
images of Christ and the saints were expected 
to do miracles, similarly as the relics of the 
saints. In this, however, the Greek Catholics 
were disappointed. The Moslems conquered 
their countries one after another in spite of 
images. 

Emperor Leo III. of the Eastern empire (716- 



126 History of Christianity. 

741) finally lost faith in images, and suspected 
even that the reason of the Mohammedan suc- 
cesses was that they tolerated no images- In 
726 he began to make war upon the pictures of 
Christ and the saints. At first he gave the 
command to hang the pictures in the churches 
higher, so as to bring them out of the reach of 
kiss and touch, and in 730 he ordered all images 
to be taken from the churches and destroyed, 
and the wall pictures to be whitewashed. In 
this he had the violent opposition of the clergy, 
the monks and the people. Some of the soldiers 
who executed the decree of the emperor, were 
murdered by the people. Yet Leo succeeded 
finally in having all pictures removed from the 
churches within his empire. He prohibited 
even prayer to Mary and the saints. 

Pope Gregory III. protested against the 
abolishment of image worship, and excommuni- 
cated all enemies of images. A synod of Con- 
stantinople in 754 on the other hand, pro- 
nounced the ban upon those who made images 
of Christ; and even the pictures of saints.found 
in dwellings, were to be destroyed. An Eastern 
synod of the year 787, however, again sanctioned 
image worship. Although there was another 
reaction when image worship was again for- 
bidden by two emperors of the first half of the 
following century, it was reinstated by a synod 
held in 842 near Constantinople. The triumph 



The Great Schism. 127 

of image worship was this time permanent* It 
was a victory for religious sensuality. 

The Great Schism Between the East and the West. 

After the second century of the Christian era, 
the language of Rome, viz., Latin, had gradually 
become the prevailing language in the western 
part of the Roman empire. When the empire 
was divided (p. 96), the language of,the Western 
empire was Latin, and of the Eastern empire 
Greek. Hence, the church of the West was the 
Latin, and that of the East the Greek church. 
Before the time of Leo I. (p. 97) both the Greek 
and the Latin church were ruled by patri- 
archs (p. 91). The claims of authority over 
the other patriarchs, which Leo advanced were 
never fully acknowledged by the patriarchs of 
the East. In course of time there arose also 
some minor differences in doctrine and practice 
between the Western and the Eastern church. 
The former held (after Augustine) that the Holy 
Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son, while 
the Eastern church believed that he proceeds 
from the Father only. The Latin or Roman 
church enforced celibacy upon the clergy, for- 
bidding the marriage of all priests, while the 
Greeks prohibited the marriage of bishops 
only. The Greeks declared the use of unleav- 
ened bread in the Eucharist as a Jewish custom. 
They would not approve of the Western custom 
that the priests did not shave (while to-day, as 



128 History of Christianity. 

a matter of fact, the Greek Catholic priests 
have beards, but not those of the Roman Catho- 
lic church). 

After much controversy and in spite of all 
endeavor on both sides to come to an under- 
standing on these points, the estrangement 
only increased, until on July 17, 1054, a number 
of representatives of the papacy laid a letter of 
excommunication on the altar of the church of 
St. Sophia in Constantinople. The pope was, 
in turn, excommunicated by the patriarch of 
Constantinople and the sentence was approved 
by the patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch and 
Alexandria. Henceforth there was a high wall 
of partition fixed between Greek and Roman 
Catholics. The Greek church (which has, how- 
ever, long ago ceased to be Greek as far as 
language is concerned) is to this day governed 
by patriarchs, with the exception of the church 
of Russia which is governed by "the Holy 
Synod. " The principal stronghold of Greek 
Catholicism is Russia. The Protestant Refor- 
mation has touched only the Western or Roman 
Catholic countries. 

The Crusades. 

After Constantine's time the opinion pre- 
vailed that pilgrimage to the Holy Land was 
one of the most meritorious religious practices. 
It was felt a disgrace that the Holy Land 
should be in the hands of the Mohammedan 



Ihe Crusades. 129 

Arabs who had conquered it in 637. The popes 
held it to be the duty of the Christian nations to 
reconquer Palestine. There came also com- 
plaints concerning molestations of pilgrims in 
the Holy Land. Pope Urban II. in 1095 called 
upon all Christendom to engage in a "holy 
war" against the Mohammedans, to drive them 
out of Palestine. Besides full forgiveness of all 
sins, those taking part in a crusade were to be 
granted privileges of different kind. Men of 
passionate speech urged the people to enlist. 
A wave of enthusiasm went through Europe. 
Hundreds of thousands "took the cross"; that 
is, in enlisting, they had strips of red cloth 
sewed on their outer garment, in the form of a 
cross. "God wills it," was the cry of the pre- 
tended soldiers of the cross. 

The first two armies of crusaders perished 
before they entered Asia. The knight God- 
frey of Bouillon in France, consequently organ- 
ized a large army, invaded Palestine, and suc- 
ceeded in conquering Jerusalem in 1099. The 
Holy City having been taken by storm, and 
many thousands of Mohammedans and Jews 
within its walls put to death, the crusaders 
entered the church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
praising God for the victory. Godfrey was 
chosen king of Jerusalem. Sooii, however, 
the new kingdom found itself pressed hard by 
the Mohammedans. New armies of crusaders 



ISO History of Christianity. 

had to be sent to the aid of the king of Jerusa- 
lem. The famous Bernard, of Clairvaux, in 1147, 
went through Europe, calling upon the people 
to "take the cross." This expedition, the 
second great crusade, was a disastrous failure. 
In 1187 Jerusalem was reconquered by the Mos- 
lems. 

The greatest potentates of Christendom 
organized armies for the conquest of Palestine. 
There were in all, seven great crusades, in 
which millions of lives were sacrificed. Jeru- 
salem, however, has since 1187 remained in 
the hands of the Moslems, and the Holy Land 
is to-day a part of the empire of "the unspeak- 
able Turk. " Christian piety was not increased 
by the crusades, although these expeditions 
had a marked influence on the civilization and 
development of the West. Crusades were there- 
after ordered by the popes even against the 
heretics, so-called, in Christendom, i. e., those 
Christians who refused to make common cause 
with the state ch arches. 

Bernard of Clairvaux. 

This remarkable man, generally known as 
Saint Bernard (1090-1153), was the abbot of a 
famous monastery at Clairvaux in France. He 
was the most influential man of his time in 
Christendom. Kings of the Christian nations 
sought his advice. He was a noble character, 



Arnold of Brescia- 131 

endowed with seemingly irresistible povver of 
speech, a man of eminent piety; yet he shared 
the superstitions and prejudices of his age. 
Like Augustine, he had persuaded himself that 
adherence to the Catholic church is one of the 
chiefest of Christian duties. Notwithstanding 
this, he wrote to pope Eugenius III., condemn- 
ing the worldly pomp with which the pope had 
surrounded himself. "In these things," he 
added, "thou art not a follower of St. Peter but 
of Cons tan tine. " 

Arnold of Brescia, 

One of the first great men to preach the 
necessity of a reformation of the church. He 
held the great worldly possessions and the 
"temporal power" of the pope, as well as the 
wealth of the church, to be the cause of the pre- 
vailing corruption. Civil government should 
be entirely separated from the hierarchy. 
Primitive Christianity should be taken by the 
church for an ensample. The pope conceived 
Arnold to be his worst enemy and finally suc- 
ceeded in having emperor Frederick deliver 
him up into his hands, whereupon the reformer 
was strangled and burned in Rome (A. D. 1155) 
for those "abominable heresies." 

Arnold of Brescia clearly recognized the 
cause of the worldliness of the church. He 
labored for a reformation to begin with the 



132 History of Christianity. 

clergy or hierarchy, and this, naturally, proved 
a failure. If, under the prevailing conditions, 
a reformation ever was to be accomplished, it 
must proceed from the people instead of the 
pope or hierarchy. 

Faith, Life and Practice During this Period. 

Comparatively little is to be said concerning 
the faith and practice of the church during this 
long period (A. D. 337-1170). There are few 
changes to be recorded. The leading principles, 
adopted during the previous period (mainly at 
the time of Constantine) were adhered to and 
more fully developed. 

Spirituality was, at the beginning of this 
period, at a low ebb. The heathen masses had 
united with the church largely for the reason 
that they were commanded to do so by the 
emperor, and were not willing to undergo per- 
secution for their heathenish belief. Sin or 
vice was never, or only in exceptional cases, 
made the cause for excommunication from the 
church. Excommunication took place only in 
the case of heresy, or more correctly, for the 
profession or teaching of heresy. The law 
required every inhabitant of the land to be a 
member of the state church, and this law was 
rigidly enforced. An exception was made only 
in the case of the Jews. The Jews were 
repeatedly driven from the Christian countries. 



Makarius. 133 

They would, however, in course of time, reg- 
ularly return. It was finally decided that they 
were to be tolerated, provided that they would 
keep their peculiar religious teachings to them- 
selves. 

Some idea of the prevailing conditions at the 
beginning of this period may be obtained from 
such episodes as the turmoil of the great General 
Council at Ephesus in 449 (the second one after 
that of Nice). This was the time at the Chris- 
tological controversies (p. 109). During that 
Council, after a stormy debate, the delegates 
began to fight with their fists and staves. The 
one party called soldiers to their assistance 
who rushed into the church with unsheathed 
swords. Florian, patriarch of Constantinople, 
was so maltreated that he died in consequence. 
In the next General Council, of Chalcedon (A. 
D. 451) there occurred similar scenes of unruly 
violence. 

Evidence of Christian piety, on the other 
hand, was not entirely missing. True Chris- 
tians, however, were to be found principally in 
the convents and in the smaller Christian 
denominations. From the writings of Makarius, 
an Egyptian monk (died in 391), it is evident 
that primitive Christian piety was far from 
being extinct in the cloisters of the valley of 
the Niie. This author emphasizes the teaching 
that all outward religious forms, such as pray- 



13 Jf History of Christianity. 

ing, ringing, fasting, waking, celibacy, etc., are 
of merit only so far as they are instrumental in 
bringing into evidence the fruits of the Spirit 
(Gal. 5: 22). This requires a heart that truly 
loves God, and only in so far as the outward 
forms of religion bring a man nearer to God, 
are they of any benefit; not, however, in them- 
selves. Makarius, it should be observed, lived 
at the beginning of this period, and such teach- 
ing is not further met with during the succeed- 
ing centuries. His writings show that in cer- 
tain quarters, particularly in some of the con- 
vents, spirituality maintained itself for some 
time, notwithstanding the generally prevailing 
corruption. 

The worship of the saints and of their images, 
as well as the images of Christ, have been 
previously referred to (p. 125). The church 
fathers and theologians denied the charge of 
the Jews and Mohammedans that saint or image 
worship is a species of idolatry. They justified 
image worship on the same ground which is 
sometimes taken by heathen for worshipping 
idols, namely, that the Highest Being is wor- 
shipped under some visible form. As Israel, 
notwithstanding the light which she had 
received, made the golden calf and many other 
idols, and worshipped them, falling back into 
the ways of Egypt and the surrounding nations, 

so now the professedly Christian church made 

I 



Image Worship. 135 

and worshipped images of Christ and the 
saints. Israel, as a matter of fact, pretended 
to worship Jehovah under the image of the calf. 
As for Moses, however, he was of different 
opinion, and so was the Lord himself. 

The most popular images, besides those of 
the saints, were those of the cross, and the 
crucifix. The wooden and silver Christ was 
taken as a substitute for the living Christ in 
the heart. "The more," in the words of the 
historian Herzog, "the cross came into use in 
manifold forms and signs, the more the truly 
evangelical faith in Christ, the Crucified, dis- 
appeared. The more the cross of Christ was 
outwardly exhibited, the more it became 
inwardly a stumblingblock and folly to men." 

Kelics, i. e., particles of the bodies or apparel 
of t le saints, were by the church fathers 
believed to do miracles, and be worthy of relig- 
ious adoration. They were kept in peculiar 
shrines in the churches, and were, from time 
to time displayed for the veneration of the 
multitude. The second Council of Nice (787) 
decreed that no churches should be consecrated 
without having some relics. The relics became 
regular and valuable articles of trade. This 
gave occasion to very many frauds. Of the 
cross of Christ, for instance, which was believed 
to have been found, countless splinters were 
sold, while the cross itself remained (by a 



136 History of Christianity. 

continued miracle) whole and undiminished. A 
list of relics found in some of the great Chris- 
tian temples during this and the following 
period contained generally some glaring absurd- 
ities. As late as 1520 the cathedral of Halle in 
Saxony contained, among thousands of others, 
the following relics : The stone by which St. 
Stephen had been killed, a piece of the staff of 
St. Peter, twenty-five pieces of the burning 
bush of Moses, rests of the manna, a piece of 
the altar on which St John said mass for the 
Holy Virgin, etc. In praying to the saints some 
went so far as to threaten them that they would 
no longer burn candles at their altars or burn 
incense in their honor if they did not answer 
the prayer. 

An endeavor to divert faith from the spiritual 
to that which is visible is generally in evidence. 
Superstition took the place of faith. Religious 
ceremonies of different sort came into use. The 
number of sacraments (Christian ordinances) 
was during this period increased to seven, and 
the observation of the same was believed to be 
the means of salvation. 

While the Greek church never sanctioned the 
use of musical instruments in worship, no such 
restriction was in force in Western Christen- 
dom, where after the seventh century organs 
were used in the churches. Church bells were 
dedicated by baptism (with water and oil,) a 



Tithing. 137 

practice which was forbidden by Charlemagne, 
but without avail. 

After Charlemagne the giving of tithes, or 
the tenth part of an income for the support of 
the church, was made obligatory. Tithes had 
to be delivered to the bishops. This was 
regarded as a minimum contribution for the 
maintenance of religion. Would Christians of 
our day give as a free-will offering as much as 
those people were compelled to give for relig- 
ious purposes, the Missionary Societies would 
be free of debt, and much more could be accom- 
plished by them. 

In the Eastern church the lower clergy w r ere 
never forbidden to marry, only second mar- 
riages were not allowed. In the West, celibacy, 
that is, the unmarried life of the priesthood was 
made obligatory by Hildebrand (pope Gregory 
VII.), but even before that time priests were 
usually unmarried, since the marriage of priests 
had been discouraged in many ways, and that 
principally because it was believed that an 
unmarried priesthood only could be fully relied 
upon by the higher clergy. 






IV. 
The Dawn of a New Day. 

A. D. 1170 to A. D. 1519. 

In consequence of heathenish influences to 
which the church yielded, and of priestcraft, 
the light of the gospel had for many centuries 
been obscured. Not only had the powers of 
darkness succeeded in putting the light more 
and more under a cover or bushel (Matt. 5: 15), 
but every precaution was taken to prevent the 
bushel from being consumed by its flame. The 
friends of darkness w r ere ever watching to dis- 
cover the places where the bushel w r as about to 
catch fire. They were ever ready, as it were, 
to pour water on such places, for that bushel 
was indeed a religious utensil, it had been con- 
structed w T ith much labor, and was considered 
of the highest value. In spite of all effort, 
however, it was after the year 1150, if not 
earlier, found that the bushel had been damaged 
sufficiently for considerable light to shine 



Peter Waldo. 139 

through. Since that time all efforts to again 
make it whole were frustrated. Although 
some success was, at times, achieved in patch- 
ing it up to some extent, soon the patch as well 
as another part of the bushel would be found 
to be burned to ashes. In course of time, more 
and more of it was consumed by the lire, until 
to-day the whole of the bottom is burned out. 

The fall of the church had been caused by 
the departure from the Holy Scriptures. A 
reformation could be accomplished only by a 
return to the Bible and its teachings and prin- 
ciples. The Bible must once more be placed 
into the hands of the people instead of being 
used merely by theologians only as far as it 
suited their fancies. The first requirement for 
a reformation was that the people had the Word 
of God and made faithful use of it. 

Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of the city of 
Lyons, in southern France, was led to have the 
Bible translated into the tongue of the people, 
the Romance dialect. In 1170 he employed two 
learned men for that purpose who translated 
for him the four Gospels and different other 
books of the Old and the New Testament. Waldo 
and his friends accepted the Bible, and it alone, 
for their spiritual guide. This is generally 
believed to be the origin of the Waldensian 
church. There is, how T ever, an ancient Wal- 
densian tradition which is even accepted by 



llfi History of Christianity. 

some historians, that their name is not derived 
from Waldo, but from the word designating 
valley, (hence, Vallenses; many of them lived in 
certain valleys of the Alps) and that the begin- 
ning of this church reaches back further than 
the time of Waldo. However that may be, it is 
certain that the all pervading principle of the 
Waldenses was a return to the Bible and to 
primitive Christianity. They were an evan- 
gelical denomination who set themselves 
against the superstition, priestcraft and world- 
liness that had come to prevail in Christendom. 
Since the enemies of evangelical truth never 
succeeded in extinguishing the light which, 
small as it was, had been "set on a candlestick" 
as early as 1170, if not before that date, we 
accept that year as marking the break of a new 
day. 

Christian Piety During the Dark Ages. 

It has been intimated in a previous paragraph 
that even in the darkest ages of superstition 
and formalism, evidence of true Christian piety 
and personal Christian experience was not 
entirely lacking. While the great masses of 
the Christian professors would have been unable 
to point to any other evidence for their claim 
of being Christians, than the fact that they had 
been baptized and observed certain religious 
forms, there were apparently always some who 



Piety in the Middle Ages. lJfl 

had come to a personal saving knowledge of 
Christ; and the number of these may have been 
much larger than the historical data would 
appear to warrant. They were of three classes. 
First, there were those Christians who made 
bold to assert their disagreement from the great 
state church. These were the so-called heretics. 
Secondly, there were those who had more light 
than the great church, and clearly perceived it 
to be their duty to separate themselves from 
the hierarchy under which heathenish super- 
stition and worldliness prevailed, but did not 
have the courage of their conviction. Had 
there been liberty of conscience, they should 
have been ready to k 'go out from among them. " 
Thirdly, there were those who had, perhaps 
after severe trouble of conscience and by con- 
tinued effort, persuaded themselves that the 
"holy" Catholic church was the true church of 
Christ. They had been brought up in that faith, 
and if ever they should have become aware that 
some of the teachings of the church were 
unscriptural, they had been taught to ascribe 
this apparent disharmony to a deficiency in 
their own understanding. It seemed so unrea- 
sonable that the pope, the supposed rock on 
which the church was built, could, together 
with the church fathers, be w^rong. And, at 
any rate, the church, i. e., the hierarchy, was 
believed to be of greater authority than the 



1^2 History of Christianity. 

Bible. Considering all this, it was but natural 
that many earnest Christians were loyal Roman 
Catholics. 

The question whether there have been evan- 
gelical churches or denominations at all times 
during the Dark Ages, is one of interest and 
import. We should note that one of the ancient 
reformatory churches, the Donatists (p. 63), per- 
petuated themselves down to the seventh cen- 
tury. During the following four centuries, 
namely, till after the year 1100 there is no his- 
torical record that e /angelical churches were 
in existence. If there were such churches dur- 
ing that period, they can not have been very 
active, for in such case there would be found 
some record of their persecutions. Possibly 
future investigations will throw new light on 
this question. 

There were heretics, that is, those who did 
not agree in their teaching with ihe Catholic 
church, in all centuries; few of them, however, 
founded new churches. Some had received 
light in one or a few points only, while others 
advanced views which were as unscriptural as 
popery itself. 

The Petrobrussians. 

After the year 1100 there were some churches 
which may be designated as evangelical. The 
most notable of them is that of the Petrobrus- 



The Waldenses. US 

sians in France. Peter de Bruys, their leader, 
a former priest, preached the necessity of a 
return to the pure teachings of the Scriptures. 
He protested against relic and image worship 
as idolatry. Altars and images, he contended, 
should be destroyed. Wherever there is a holy 
person, there is a holy place, and God can be 
worshipped in a barn as well as in a church, for 
was not Christ born in a stable? At one time 
he cooked his dinner with relics and crucifixes. 
He rejected purgatory, celibacy and mass, as 
well as infant baptism. Peter de Bruys in 1124 
was killed by the people who felt that he was 
an enemy of their gods. His followers were 
numerous. 

The Waldenses. 

The most notable points of teaching of the 
Waldenses were as follows: The Sacred Script- 
ures, to be explained from themselves, are the 
only authority in matters of faith and practice, 
and any teaching that can not be proven by the 
text of the Scriptures is without authority. 
The New Testament is the highest revelation 
of the truth and will of God; it is not only the 
source of Christian faith but contains also the 
rules of life and practice. The Old Testament 
is a part of the Word of God; its worship and 
law, however, as was clearly taught by Christ 
and the apostles, has been superseded by 
gospel principles. The church to whom the 



144 History of Christianity. 

Scriptures are given and who ought to be 
guided by them, is not a hierarchy, but the 
Christian people. Hence, the Waldenses, 
according to the testimony of their enemies, 
were thorough students of the Scriptures, com- 
mitting large portions of them to memory; it is 
said that some of them knew the whole of the 
New Testament by heart. 

The doctrines of the seven sacraments, of 
mass, purgatory and indulgences, the worship 
of saints and images, as well as many other 
unchristian forms of worship, were emphatically 
rejected. Every Christian is a priest. A bad 
priest can not absolve, while a good layman has 
the power of absolving; absolution, however, is 
effective only when preceded by repentance. 
Of their ministers they did not demand celibacy. 
Regeneration, they held, does not come from 
baptism but from the inward workings of the 
Holy Spirit. Infant baptism was practised, 
although there were some Waldenses who 
rejected it. The Roman church was held to be 
the ' 'great harlot." A true Christian church, 
they said, must be separated from the world. 
They rejected worldly amusements. ' 'Dancing, "- 
they said, "is the procession of the devil," and 
"drink houses, the school of Satan." Judicial 
oaths and military service (war) were also 
rejected. 

One of their Catholic opponents (Pilichdorf) 



The Waldenses. 145 

writes concerning them in 1395. "Among all 
sects that have hitherto existed there has been 
none more pernicious to the (Roman) church than 
the sect of the Leonists (Waldenses of Lyons), 
and this for three reasons. First, because it 
reaches back the furthest; for some say that it 
exists since the time of Sylvester (who was 
bishop of Rome at the time of Constantine). 
Secondly, because it is the most universally 
spread; for there is hardly a country where 
they are not found. Next, because, while other 
sects appeal to the hearers by the blasphemous 
character of their doctrines, the Leonists main- 
tained a great show of piety, because they led 
a pious life before the eyes of men, were quite 
orthodox in their doctrine concerning God, and 
adopted all the articles of the apostolic creed. 
They only abused the churcn of Rome and the 
clergy, and in doing this they found ready hearers 
among the people.' ' 

The same author thus describes their mode 
of living: "They are orderly and modest in their 
manners; their dress is neither expensive nor 
mean; in order that they may avoid oaths, false- 
hood or fraud, they engage in no sort of traffic. 
They live on what they earn by the labor of 
their own hands from day to day. Even shoe- 
makers are teachers among them. They amass 
no wealth, but are contented with the bare 
necessaries of life. They are also chaste, espe- 



146 History of Christianity. 

cially the Waldenses. They are never found 
hanging about wine shops; they attend no balls 
nor other vanities. They govern their passions, 
they are always at work, " etc. 

The Waldenses were a missionary church. 
The history of their spread is known almost 
exclusively from the records of their persecu- 
tions which were kept by their enemies. They 
spread over a large part of Europe. Before 
the year 1200 they were found in Spain and 
Northern Italy. Within fifty years more they 
appear in various parts of France and Germany; 
later also in Switzerland and Austria. They 
had many adherents in these countries, and still 
more friends who had been influenced by them. 
Certain valleys of the Cottian Alps came to be 
their headquarters. Many Waldenses suffered 
death for their faith, but never was the Roman 
church successful in arresting this reformatory 
movement. 

At the time of the Protestant Reformation 
there were many Waldenses, not only in the 
Waldensian valleys of the Alps, but in Germany 
and other countries. The Waldenses of Italy 
were in the sixteenth century largely influenced 
by the Swiss reformers Zwingli and Calvin. 
In the year 1532 the Italian Waldenses met in a 
synod at Angrogna and decided, under the 
influence of two reformatory preachers, Wil- 
liam Farel and Antoine Saunier, of Geneva (the 



Alhigensian Crusade. 147 

headquarters of Calvinism), to accept all the 
teachings of these reformers, abandoning those 
of their former doctrines and practices which 
were not in accord with the Reformed or Cal- 
vinistic principles. The doctrine of predestina- 
tion was sanctioned, while military service 
and the swearing of judicial oaths, and others 
of their peculiar practices were abandoned. 
Since that time the Italian Waldenses have 
been one of the Calvinistic (generally desig- 
nated as Reformed) denominations. They 
are to-day one of the strongest and most active 
of the evangelical denominations in the Italian 
state, and the most prominent factor in the 
evangelization of their native land. 

The Catharites and Albigenses. 

It is held by some historians that there were 
two divisions of the Catharites. The majority 
of them had evidently accepted Manichaean 
teachings (p. 71). The claim that there was 
an evangelical branch of the Catharites does 
not appear to be well substantiated by historical 
evidence. Many of the Catharites together 
with other opponents of the Roman Catholic* 
church lived in southern France. They were 
collectively designated as the Albigenses.. 
Pope Innocent III., in 1209, called upon the 
adherents of the state church to engage in a 
crusade against them. In a communication 



Ijf8 History of Christianity. 

addressed to the king of France, the pope said, 
"We wish all the goods of the heretics to be 
confiscated, and both to yourself and to the 
men of your land who shall take arms against 
them, the same remission of sins shall be vouch- 
safed as we have deemed it proper to bestow 
upon those who assist in the rescue of the Holy 
Land." More than fifty thousand professing 
Christians were ready on these terms to take 
the sword, under the command of Raymond, of 
Toulouse, against the heretics. The country 
was filled with bloodshed and horror. Many 
thousands of heretics were killed. At the sack- 
ing of Beziers, in 1209, abbot Arnold, the ecclesi- 
astical leader of the crusade, was asked how 
the Catholics could be known from the heretics. 
Fearing that one of the latter might escape, 
he answered: "Slay them all, God will know 
his own." "Never, says Milman, "was war 
w r aged in which ambition, the consciousness of 
strength, rapacity, implacable hatred and piti- 
less cruelty played a greater part. And 
throughout the war it can not be disguised that 
it was not merely the army of the Church, but 
the Church itself in arms. Papal legates and 
the greatest prelates headed the host, and 
mingled in all the horrors of the battle and the 
siege. In no instance did tht*y interfere to 
arrest the massacre; in some cases they urged 
it on." 



John Wycliffe. 1J(9 

Marsilius of Padua. 

During the time of the great conflict between 
the emperor Louis of Bavaria (1314-1347) and 
the papacy, there appeared a book by a certain 
Marsilius of Padua in defence of the stand 
which the emperor, for a time, had taken 
against the pope. This work bearing the title, 
The Defender of the Peace, is remarkable for 
its advocacy of the principle of a separation 
of church and state. 

John Wycliffe. 



One of the great precursors of the Reforma- 
tion was the Englishman, John "Wycliffe (1320- 
1384). In 1366 the pope had laid a new tribute 
upon England. Wycliffe who was a lecturer at 
the University of Oxford, contended that the 
payment of it should be refused. This secured 
for him the friendship of the king (Edward III.) 
and of parliament. Thereafter, Wycliffe attacked 
the worldliness of the church at large. To an 
extent his principles agree with those of the 
Waldenses of his time (p. 143). Pope Gregory 
XI. in 1377 condemned nineteen heresies found 
in his writings. The English court, however, 
gave him protection. Wycliffe showed there- 
after only more boldness in attacking Roman- 
ism, but in 1382 his teachings were condemned 
by a synod of London and the university dis- 
claimed him as a teacher. The king could do 



150 History of Christianity. 

nothing for him except to afford him personal 
protection. Wycliffe retired to Lutterworth 
where he died in 1384 as a priest of the Catholic 
church. He had translated the Bible into Eng- 
lish. It was, however, not his purpose to found 
a new church, hence, his followers, the so-called 
Lollards ,were of comparatively small number. 
They were severely persecuted and a number 
of them died a martyr's death. One of the 
most noted of them was Sir Joha Oldcastle, 
who was burned in 1417. Traces of the Lollards 
are found up to the time of the Reformation. 

John Huss and the Hussites. 

John Huss (born 1369), a professor of the 
famous University of Prague, in Bohemia, had 
been influenced by the reading of Wycliffe's 
books. In 1409 he was elected Rector (Dean) of 
the university. He preached earnestly against 
the worldliness of the hierarchy and the cor- 
ruption of the priesthood. The pope demanded 
that the heretics of Bohemia should be silenced, 
whereupon Huss was excommunicated by the 
archbishop of Prague (1410). The reformer, 
however, who notwithstanding the ban con- 
tinued to preach, was protected by the king of 
Bohemia. 

Pope John XXIII., in 1411, summoned the 
faithful in Bohemia to support a crusade against 
the king of Naples, who was an adherent of the 



John Huss. 151 

rival pope Gregory XII. Indulgences for the 
support of the crusade were sold in Bohemia. 
Huss emphatically declared against this traffic. 
Hence, pope John XXIII. confirmed Huss' excom- 
munication by the archbishop. Huss was 
forced to flee from Prague, but was protected 
by friendly nobles. He now wrote a book on 
The Church. He shows that the believers are 
the church and the head of them is Christ 
alone. The church could dispense with the 
pope, for in primitive Christendom popery was 
unheard of, having come into existence only 
at the time of Constantine. When the pope 
commands people to do wrong, it is sin to obey 
him. 

In order to compel the emperor to take meas- 
ures against Huss, pope John laid Huss ' (former) 
place of residence, the city of Prague, under 
the great ban or Inderdict, i. e., he forbade all 
priests to say mass or grant absolution in 
Prague. In consequence of this Huss was by 
emperor Sigismund summoned to appear before 
the great church council at Constance in 
Swabia. The emperor gave him the pledge of 
safe conduct thither and back. 

The council of Constance had been called for 
the purpose of deciding the question who should 
be pope, for there were not less than three 
popes at the time, each one excommunicating 
and condemning the others. This schism had 



152 History of Christianity. 

lasted for forty; years and had caused a great 
decline of papal authority. Eighteen thousand 
clergymen convened at Constance. Pope John 
XXIII. who had called the Council was for his 
many crimes deposed, as were also the two 
other rival popes (Gregory XII. and Benedict 
XIII). A new pope, Martin V., was elected 
and it was solemnly announced that a general 
council of the church is superior to the pope in 
authority. This principle was, however, con- 
demned by succeeding popes. 

Soon after his arrival at Constance, Huss 
was arrested and thrown into a dungeon. The 
Council demanded of him that he recant "his 
heresies." Huss declared his willingness to 
recant any of his teachings which they might 
show to be unscriptural. He was condemned 
to the stake and burned, July 6, 1415. The 
execution was preceded by Huss' degradation 
from the priestly office. For this purpose he 
had been clothed with the sacerdotal vestments, 
which were one after another taken from him 
under curses. A paper crown with the picture 
of demons and the inscription, "archheretic" 
was placed on his head. "Now we give over 
thy soul to the devil, " said the priests solemnly. 
"But I," said Huss, "commend to thee, O Lord 
Jesus Christ, the soul which thou hast 
redeemed. " Having mounted the stake, Huss 
prayed, "Lord Jesus, I suffer this dreadful 



Huss Burned at the Stake. 153 

death for thy sake, and I ask thee to forgive 
all my enemies. " 

Before fire was set to the stake the Marshall 
of the empire once more called upon him to 
recant. But Huss replied: "What I have 
written and taught, I did for the purpose of 
having people turn from sin, and I will gladly 
seal it with my blood." The fire was lighted. 
Huss' last words were: "Lord Jesus, have 
mercy on me!" When he repeated these words 
for the third time, the wind drove the flame 
into his face. His lips were still seen to move 
in prayer. Thus the soul of the faithful ser- 
vant of Jesus Christ ascended in a chariot of 
fire. His ashes were thrown into the Rhine. 

But had not the emperor guaranteed to Huss 
safety for his person? It was only after a 
struggle of conscience that Sigismund consented 
to have him put to death. The great doctors 
who were assembled in the Council, however, 
advanced the claim that a promise or an oath 
given to a heretic need not be kept. This opin- 
ion was established by quite a number of theo- 
logical arguments. We have here only one of 
the many instances which go to show that the 
teaching of the Roman church was determined, 
not by the Scriptures or by principle, but by 
convenience and circumstances. Huss' friend 
and companion, Jerome of Prague, was burned 
at the stake in the following year. 



154 History of Christianity. 

While Huss was in Constance, a movement 
of actual reform had been inaugurated in 
Bohemia. His friends had celebrated the Lord 's 
supper "in both forms," i. e., they had given 
the cup to the laity, as well as to the priests. 
When the message of the death of the reformer 
reached Bohemia, great indignation was man- 
ifested. Four hundred and fifty-two nobles 
agreed to form a league, declaring that the 
Council had erred, and they would uphold the 
teachings of Huss, and die for their convictions, 
if need be. When it was threatened that a 
crusade should be organized against them, they 
built a strongly fortified city upon a high moun- 
tain called Tabor. While the milder party, the 
Calixtines (calix, i. e., cup), demanded the use of the 
cup for the laity, freedom for the preaching of 
the gospel throughout Bohemia, and enforce- 
ment of discipline among the clergy and laity, 
the faction of the Taborites not only proposed 
to do away with all popish ceremonies, but 
took the sword against their enemies and the 
result was the terrible Hussite wars. The 
mildness and evangelical soberness of Huss 
was not found in most of his professed fol- 
lowers. They were to the contrary yet saturated 
with Romish ideas. 

Three large and well organized armies of 
crusaders were dispersed by the Hussites under 
the famous Taborite, General Ziska. After 



The Bohemian Brethren. 155 

that the latter invaded some of the neighboring 
countries. Ziska died in 1424. The Council of 
Basel (1433) granted to the Bohemians the use 
of the cup for the laity, preaching in the tongue 
of the people and better discipline for the 
clergy. With these concessions the Calixtines 
declared themselves satisfied, while the Tabor- 
ites continued the war. They were, however, 
defeated in 1434 and Tabor was finally con- 
quered in 1453. 

The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. 

The concessions which had been granted to 
the Hussites by the Council of Basel were soon 
restricted, and later entirely annulled. The 
Taborites were led to see the wrong of taking 
the sword in defence of the faith. Through the 
influence of the enlightened Peter of Cheljitz, 
the Hussites organized themselves into congre- 
gations, acknowledging the Bible as their only 
authority, and taking the primiti/e church for 
their model. They elected elcjers and resolved 
upon the enforcement of strict discipline. 
Henceforth they were known under the name 
of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. 

King George, of Bohemia, in 1458, granted 
them liberty of conscience. Their first bishop, 
Matthias of Kunewald, a farmer by occupation, 
was ordained in 1467 by a Waldensian mission- 
ary bishop named Stephen. The latter was 
afterwards burned at the stake in Vienna. 



156 History of Christianity. 

Persecution soon ensued, but under king 
Wladislaw toleration was again granted to the 
Brethren. In 1474 they sent out of their midst 
a number of emissaries into the various coun- 
tries of Christendom, to ascertain, if possible, 
whether there were anywhere ' 'Christians who 
confess Christ, not only with their mouth, but 
follow him in their lives, who hold fast to the 
pure doctrine of the Word, who realize that the 
pope is the antichrist and whom they could 
acknowledge as of the same faith with them. " 
A few nobles pledged themselves to bear the 
expenses of travel, and succeeded in obtaining 
letters of safe conduct from the king. 

The delegates travelled through Poland to 
Constantinople. One of them, Luke of Prague, 
went to Greece and Italy; others travelled to 
Russia, Palestine, Egypt, etc. They returned 
with the report that nowhere had they found a 
true Christian church, but everywhere the most 
appalling decline. Again, in 1489, Luke of 
Prague, with a companion, travelled to France 
and Italy in quest of an evangelical and pure 
church. They found the nominal Christians 
apostate from Christ in doctrine and life, but 
they also met with some pious souls who were 
sighing under great tribulations. In France 
they found the Waldenses whom they recog- 
nized as pious Christians and left with them 
some of their literature. After the delegates 



The Mystics. 157 

had returned and given their reports, it was 
resolved that the Brethren should continue in 
prayer to God for a reformation of the church. 
Those were times of comparative peace and 
quietness for the Brethren. Many nobles pro- 
tected them on their estates and permitted them 
to build meeting-houses. In the year 1503 they 
had about 400 houses of worship. The whole 
of the Bible had been printed in their language 
in 1488. A persecution followed in 1503 which 
lasted to the year 1516, i. e., only a few r years 
before the beginning of the Lutheran reforma- 
tion. Their further history and the reasons 
why they refused to consent to a union with 
the Lutheran movement will find attention in a 
succeeding chapter. 

The Mystics and the Friends of God. 

The so-called Mystics were advocates and 
representatives of what is sometimes designated 
as experimental religion. They were indifferent 
toward and even opposed to Scholasticism or 
school-theology. The great theologians of the 
Catholic church, called the Scholastics, believed 
that by their great learning they had ascertained 
all about things spiritual. They held that 
religion is preeminently a matter of knowing 
certain scholastic truths and of observing cer- 
tain forms. The Mystics, on the other hand, 
believed that Christianity consists not so much 
in theological knowledge or in outward forms, 



lS8 History of Christianity. 

but in true conversion and a holy life. Not he 
who has studied the books on theology and 
observes certain forms, is for that reason a 
Christian, but he who has the life of God in his 
soul, having been born from above. Christian- 
ity is not so much a religion as it is a life. The 
way to obtain this life is made very plain in the 
Scriptures: it includes complete surrender of 
self. The purpose of Christianity is that man 
should receive this life from above, and he only 
who has received it, is enlightened in spiritual 
things. The Mystics said that a man might 
study theology all his life, and yet lack spiritual 
discernment. They were called Mystics, be- 
cause they believed that the experience of true 
conversion, and the dealings of God with the 
sanctified soul, and the illumination of the 
Spirit, are mysteries to the unconverted. The 
Scholastics, on the other hand, believed they 
knew all about the Christian religion, because 
thpy had their heads full of theological ideas. 

The Mystics, for the most part, remained 
inside of the fold of the Catholic church, avoid- 
ing, however, carefully the idolatrous practice 
of praying to saints, images or relics. They 
held that most Catholic ceremonies, although 
not scriptural, were harmless. They taught 
the necessity of "experimental religion, " and 
earnestly hoped and labored for a reformation 
of the church. 



John T aider. 159 

The most profound thinker among the Mys- 
tics was Eckhart (born about 1260). For many 
years he labored as a teacher in Strasburg, 
Frankfort and Cologne. Twenty-eight state- 
ments out of his writings were in 1326 con- 
demned by the pope, the papal decision, how- 
ever, not being published till after the death of 
Eckhart. 

The greatest of the Mystics was John Tauler 
(born 1290), of Strasburg in Alsace. That city 
had ever been one of the headquarters of the 
so-called heretics. Tauler had been a priest 
and a noted preacher for many years, when one 
day a certain Nicolas of Basel, a Mystic and a 
layman, came to him, telling him in a winning 
but earnest way that he had attended some of 
his sermons and had concluded that he (Tauler), 
although a learned and eloquent man, lacked 
yet the true inward heart piety and the illumin- 
ation by the Holy Ghost. The thorough sincer- 
ity of Tauler is proven by the fact that he 
received this message with the kindliest of feel- 
ing toward Nicolas. He sought God with 
repentance and earnest prayer, he layed all his 
own ambitions on the altar, and experienced a 
thorough conversion. Henceforth he preached 
the gospel with the power of the Holy Ghost 
and many were led to Christ through him, 
Tauler did not sever his connection with the 
Catholic church. He was threatened with 



160 History of Christianity. 

excommunication, but the pope never dared to 
pronounce the ban over him, for Tauler did not 
attack the hierarchy, but their sins and the 
prevailing formality. He died in 1361. 

John Tauler's Sermons which have come 
down to us, are the most readable, edifying, 
and enjoyable devotional writings known up to 
that time, since the days of the Apostles. He 
combined something of the earnest simplicity 
and practical directness of address of a Dwight 
Lyman Moody with the deep spiritual teaching 
of an Andrew Murray, one of the most notable 
of Mystics of our day. 

The most widely circulated of the writings of 
the Mystics is an anonymous book on the 
deeper life or sanctification, which was later 
(in the sixteenth century) published under the 
singular title Theologia Germanica. It has 
since passed through many editions in different 
languages, and is worthy of all the attention 
which it has received. Among the various 
translations which have been published in the 
English language, the one by Susanna Wink- 
worth deserves mention. (Theologia German- 
ica: which setteth forth many fair lineaments 
of divine truth, and saith very lofty and lovely 
things touching a perfect life. Translated 
from the German edition of Dr. Pfeiffer.) 

There were a number of noted men in the 
Catholic church who had been influenced more 



Thomas a Kempis. 161 

or less by the Mystics and are sometimes classed 
with them. None, however, were so outspoken in 
their condemnation of mere formality as Tauler. 
The above mentioned Nicolas of Basel be- 
longed to the circle of the so-called Friends of 
God. The Friends of God were Mystics who 
had, seemingly through Waldensian influence, 
formed a kind of pietistic association, pledging 
themselves to a holy life and, although laymen, 
to work for the spreading of the truth. Tauler 
speaks of the Friends of God as the pillars of 
Christendom and the protectors from the wrath 
of God. 

The Brethren of the Common Life and 
Thomas a Kempis. 

The Brethren of the Common Life were 
societies of Christian men and women similar 
in organization and purpose to the monastic 
orders, without, however, taking vows for the 
whole life. The famous Thomas a Kempis 
(born in 1380), the author of the "Imitation of 
Christ," was the head of such a society at Zwolle, 
in the Netherlands. The Imitation of Christ is 
a book which is read by Protestants as well as 
Catholics, having passed through nearly five 
thousand editions. While it is a valuable book 
of devotion and is singularly free of any refer- 
ence to the worship of Mary and the saints, it 
is less evangelical in tone than the sermons of 
John Tauler or even the Theologia Germanica. 



162 History of Christianity. 

Savonarola. 

Jerome Savonarola (born in 1452) was a 
reformatory preacher at Florence in Italy. In 
consequence of his earnest appeals and fiery 
eloquence some reforms were accomplished 
and a republican form of government was 
organized for Florence. He did not attack any 
of the doctrines of the Catholic church, but 
condemned the corruption of the papal court 
and of the priesthood. Pope Alexander VI. 
one of the most wicked and unprincipled of 
popes, was afraid of the monk of Florence. He 
tried to buy him with "the red hat, " that is, by 
making him a cardinal. Savonarola replied 
that he aesired no other red hat than the one 
red with the blood of martyrdom. The pope 
excommunicated him in 1497, in consequence of 
which he gradually lost his influence over the 
majority of the people. He was apprehended 
and, after severe torture, burned at the stake, 
May 23, 1498. 

The Decline of the Papacy 

After Innocent III. (p. 147) there began a 
decline of the power of the papacy. Pope 
Boniface VIII. (1294-1303), endeavoring to 
raise it once more to its former authority, 
demanded submission, even in secular matters, 
of king Philip the Fair of France. Philip 
thereupon had the pope seized and confined in 



Decline of the Papacy. 163 

a prison. Later, the French king succeeded in 
his attempt to raise to the papal chair a man 
whom he could control, viz., the Frenchman, 
Clement V. He now induced the pope to free 
himself from Italian influence and to take his 
residence in the city of Avignon in France. 
For seventy years the popes resided in Avignon, 
and were daring that time little more than tools 
of the French kings. This condition of things 
is sometimes designated by papal writers as "the 
Babylonian captivity of the church." It was 
a period of general decline and loss of papal 
prestige. 

Pope Gregory XI. was in 1377 induced to 
return to Rome, although he did so under the 
vehement protests of the French cardinals. 
After Gregory's death his successor was chosen 
with the express understanding that he reside 
at Avignon. The new pope, however, after 
his coronation, disappointing the cardinals,, 
remained in Rome. In consequence of this, the 
cardinals, a majority of whom were Frenchmen., 
elected in 1378 another pope who resided in* 
Avignon. This was the beginning of the great 
schism which gave the occasion for the calling: 
of the Council of Constance (p. 151). 

The Council of Basel (1431-1443) legislated 
against abuses of different kind and was suc- 
cessful to an extent in reforming the cloisters 
which had in some cases degenerated into 



264 History of Christianity. 

schools of indolence and vice. It was solemnly 
resolved that a general council, and not the 
pope, is the highest authority in the church. 
The popes, however, failed to submit to this 
principle. When Constantinople was (in 1453) 
conquered by the Turks, pope Pius II. called 
upon the f aitnf ul to engage in a crusade against 
the Mohammedans, but his appeal died away 
unheeded. 

The successors of Pius II. were notorious for 
their wicked and scandalous lives. During the 
period just preceding the Reformation the pre- 
tended chair of St. Peter was filled by unprin- 
cipled men, some of whom lived profligate lives. 
Notable among these for his outrageous conduct 
is Alexander VI. (1493-1503). 

The Inquisition. 

Through the activity of the Waldenses and 
others, "heretical" teachings had spread 
throughout Christendom. After the crusade 
against the Albigenses (p. 147) a new office 
was created by the pope, namely, that of search- 
ing out heretics and delivering them up to the 
courts. It was moreover decreed that any 
ruler who would spare a heretic would forfeit 
his authority, and every house in which a 
heretic had been lodged should be razed to the 
ground, etc. Pope Gregory IX. founded the 
Inquisition, which was an institution for the 



The Inquisition. 165 

purpose of hunting up and destroying heretics. 
He entrusted the Dominican monks (see follow- 
ing paragraph) with this office (1232). They 
entered upon the execution of their bloody task 
in all the different countries of Western Chris- 
tendom. 

One of the means employed by the Inquisition 
toward the rooting out of the heretics was the 
torture. The victims were laid on the so-called 
rack and their bodies were literally torn to 
pieces, or some limb was exposed to fire, etc. 
Those under suspicion were, while under tor- 
ture, asked to confess their faith. Since they 
were expected to acknowledge themselves as 
heretics, they were only subjected to more 
severe torture if they professed to be faithful 
children of the Catholic church. Those who 
publicly professed that they were not Catholics, 
were subjected to torture in order to compel 
them to give the names of others of their per- 
suasion. 

It was supposed that God would help the 
innocent to endure such diabolic treatment, and 
if the pain became unbearable, it was taken as 
an indication of guilt. Many died under the 
torture. Those who refused to unite with the 
great church were burned at the stake. Some- 
times Catholics came under suspicion and were 
subjected to the torture, and under the unbear- 
able pain confessed themselves as heretics, or 



166 History of Clivistianity. 

pointed out as heretics other Catholics, who 
were as innocent of heresy as the pope himself. 
The torture was employed in secular courts as 
well as by the Inquisition. 

The people were generally embittered against 
the Inquisitors. Conrad of Marburg, who had 
been placed at the head of the organization in 
Germany, was murdered in 1233. In Spain the 
Inquisition was employed principally against 
Mohammedans and even the Jews. It continued 
in that country till 1808 when it was abolished 
by Napoleon. No less than 31,912 persons 
have been burned by the Inquisition in Spain. 
One of the most noted leaders of that religious 
tribunal in Spain was Peter Arbues. whoT' in 
3485, was murdered by the enraged people. 
This crime was avenged by burning the guilty 
ones with two hundred of their kinsfolk, while 
Arbues was canonized (declared to be a saint) 
by the pope in 1867. 

Monasticism. 

After the tenth century various new orders 
of monks were founded; e. g., the Carthusians 
(1086), the Cistercian (1098) and others. They 
differed little from the order of Benedict (Bene- 
dictines, p. 111). A new feature was introduced 
by the Spaniard Dominic Guzman (1170-1221), 
who founded the order of the Mendicants or 
begging monks. One of the purposes of this 



Monasticism. 167 

order was the conversion of heretics; hence, the 
pope entrusted the Inquisition into the hands 
of the Dominicans. 

Another mendicant order, the Franciscan, 
was founded by the noble Francis of Assisi, in 
Italy (1182-1228). He is called Saint Francis, 
and a saint he was. As a youth he had led a 
gay and worldly life. He was led by a dream 
to forsake the world and seek God. For some 
time he lived as a hermit. He found peace for 
his troubled conscience and was truly sanctified. 
His heart was aglow with the love of God. 
Above all, he was truly humble. He resolved 
that his whole life and energies should be 
devoted to induce men to deny themselves and 
the world and live for God. His simple speech 
made a wonderful impression on the people. 

Francis went to Rome to obtain the permis- 
sion of the pope to found a new order of monks. 
According to an old tradition, the pope, when 
he saw him, told him to go out to the swine, 
for Francis' clothes were ragged. He obeyed, 
and when the pope had been informed of it, he 
recalled him and admitted him into his presence. 
Francis had studied a speech which he was to 
make before the pope, but in this he failed. 
He consequently spoke extemporaneously from 
his heart, and the pope marvelled at the man. 
He permitted Francis to preach, provided, as a 
matter of course, that he remain a faithful son 



168 History of Christianity. 

of the church. He would not submit to ordina- 
tion to the priesthood, saying that he was not 
worthy of it. 

Francis travelled on foot through various 
countries, preaching repentance, and begging 
for his support. His followers (the Franciscan 
monks) partly imitated his example. He died 
in 1226. At his request he was taken to a 
church near Assisi where he passed away, 
having been stripped of his clothes. He, singu- 
larly, desired to leave this life without possess- 
ing any earthly goods, not even any clothes. 
As early as 1264 his order had about 8,000 clois- 
sters with 200,000 monks. Some of his fol- 
lowers opposed popery as an institution and 
were consequently persecuted. 

Other important monastic orders were the 
Carmelites (founded in 1156) and the Augus- 
tinians (1243). 

Theological Teachers of this Period. 

Among the Catholic theological teachers of 
this period Thomas Aquinas, the great Schol- 
astic (1227-1274), holds the foremost place. He 
taught in different Italian cities. He is to-day 
acknowledged as one of the greatest authorities 
in matters of Catholic faith and theology. His 
life was devoted to the task of producing 
evidence to show that the teaching of the 
Catholic church was right. Among many otner 
things, he proved (to the satisfaction of the pope 



Spreading of the Scriptures. 169 

and the Catholic theologians) that the departed 
in purgatory could be helped by indulgences, 
masses and the like. He also proved that the 
pope could not err from the true faith and that 
the best way of "shunning'' the heretics was to 
put them to death. On certain subjects he pre- 
sents many thoughts which are worthy of con- 
sideration. 

The Spreading of the Holy Scriptures. 

The art of printing was invented about 
A. D. 1450. Previous to this, books were high 
priced and comparatively scarce. One of the 
first books which appeared in print was the 
Latin Bible. In Germany the Bible was also 
printed in the vernacular, both in the High and 
Low German. The publication of the Bible in 
the language of the people was doubtless the 
work of Waldenses and other so-called her- 
petics, for the Catholic church did not approve 
of it. The older prohibitions regarding the use 
of the Bible in the vernacular were from time 
to time repeated and newly emphasized. 

As many as eighteen editions and versions of 
*the Bible were published in the German lan- 
guage before the beginning of the Reformation 
while of the Latin Bible previous to the year 
1500 at least ninety-eight editions were printed, 
The language of the universities of Europe and 
of the scholars was Latin. All learned books 
were written in the Latin language. 



170 History of Christianity. 

The Revival of Learning and the Humanists. 

After the fall of Constantinople (p. 123) a 
number of educated Greeks went to Italy. This 
marks the beginning of a revival of Greek 
learning in Italy. A remarkable wave of 
enthusiasm for Greek education went through 
the land of the Romans. The ancient classics 
were studied and were indeed more highly 
priced than the Scriptures or any Christian 
writings; hence, this devotion to Greek ideals 
had a paganizing effect, which is distinctly 
noticeable even at the papal court. 

From Italy the new learning spread over 
Germany and England, later also to France and 
Spain. The Greek and Latin scholars in these 
countries were called humanists. The most 
noted of them in Germany and England were 
John Reuchlin (1455-1521), Ulrich von Hutten, 
Thomas More, and the greatest of all, Erasmus 
of Rotterdam, the most learned man of those 
times. These men did much in the interest of 
classical learning. They were indeed far more 
interested in learning than in Christianity or 
religion. In the great Protestant Reformation 
they, with the exception of Ulrich von Hutten, 
either remained neutral, or took sides against 
the reformers. Erasmus rendered the cause of 
the reformation a service by the publication of 
the Greek New Testament, together w T ith a 
Latin translation, in 1516. 



Reformatory Influences. 171 

Faith, Life and Practice During this Period. 

While in the preceding period (from Constan- 
tine to the rise of the Waldenses, i. e., from 
A. D. 337 to 1170) the prevailing spiritual dark- 
ness appears to have been as intense at the 
close as at the beginning, there was during the 
period under consideration (A. D. 1170 to 1519) 
evidently some change for the better. Since 
the days of the beginning of state churchism, 
Christendom had never been more enlightened 
(or it would be more correct to say, there had 
never been so many enlightened persons in 
Christendom, comparatively small though their 
number was), than at the beginning of the six- 
teenth century when the great Protestant 
Reformation took its rise. 

The teachings of the Waldenses. who were 
truly a missionary church, and of other "heret- 
ical" churches had many adherents in most of 
the European countries, while still more had 
been more or less influenced by them. In spite 
of excommunication and Inquisition and of 
crusades against the heretics, the attempts to 
root out heresy had proven unsuccessful. The 
Mystics, through their preaching and personal 
work, and later through their writings, had 
exerted an immense influence for good. The 
writings of John Tauler, Thomas a Kempis and 
others, the Theologia Germanica, and above all 
the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular were 



172 History of Christianity. 

powerful agencies for the enlightenment of the 
people, although only a small percentage of the 
population were able to read. Even monasti- 
cism. as long as men like Francis of Assisi were 
the leaders of the movement, was a factor 
toward the betterment of Christendom. Within 
the Catholic church were found many true 
Christians who had never entertained the 
thought of severing their connection with the 
church in which they were born and brought 
up. Although they would admit that a refor- 
mation of the church was necessary, they sup- 
posed that all thought of leaving the church of 
Rome was instigated by Satan. We have a 
striking example of a converted but unenlight- 
ened Romanist in Martin Luther, the reformer, 
himself, who for years after his conversion 
remained a conscientious adherent of the 
papacy. 

One of the great indirect causes of the begin- 
ning dawn in Western Christendom was the 
decline of popery. The popes had, as a matter 
of course, not yielded in any of their preten- 
sions; the papacy and the Roman hierarchy 
were unevangelical in their attitude toward the 
truth as ever. But the times when emperors 
and kings derived their authority from the pope 
were forever passed. Even in spiritual matters 
some theologians held a general council of the 
bishops of the church to be superior to the 
I 



Romanism. 173 

pope in authority. This view was, however, 
repeatedly condemned by the popes themselves, 
The pope, at any rate, remained the acknowl- 
edged head of the Roman Catholic church, and 
still wielded an immense power in religious 
matters. He was also an independent secular 
prince, reigning over the papal state in central 
Italy, of which Rome was the capital. 

Popery was as pretentious and worldly and 
corrupt as ever. Immorality prevailed among 
the clergy. Priest rule and salvation through 
outward forms, the two fundamental principles 
of Romanism, were officially upheld by the 
church as firmly as ever. As in our day the 
pope is endeavoring to again obtain the so 
called temporal power, that is, the authority to 
rule over what was once the papal state, so the 
pretended successors of Peter of those days 
desired a return of the times of Hildebrand and 
Innocent III., when kings had held their office 
by the grace of the pope. 

The doctrines of purgatory and indulgences 
were fully developed during this period. The 
originator of the doctrine of purgatory is 
Augustine. Indulgences were sold as early as 
the seventh century. Yet the doctrines of pur- 
gatory and indulgences were not fulJy devel- 
oped before this period. 

The purgatory is supposed to be a place 
where those who eventually become heirs of 



174 History of Christianity. 

heaven are, after their departure, punished for 
their sins. Sin was believed to be forgiven 
through the absolution of the priest only as far 
as eternal punishment is concerned. The sin- 
ner must bear the temporal punishment for his 
sins in purgatory, for this is not remitted in 
the absolution. Yet the priesthood and, above 
all, the pope have these punishments under their 
control. They can shorten or terminate the 
pains of purgatory, and this they propose to 
do for money which is to be used for the cause 
of the church. The paying of money for the 
purpose of securing deliverance from purgatory, 
is called an indulgence, and the receipt for 
such money with a written guarantee of deliver- 
ance is a letter of indulgence. The one who 
pays the required amount may secure the 
indulgence for himself, or in the favor of 
departed friends. An indulgence is spoken of 
as of so many days, moilths or years, that is, 
the time of purgatory was shortened for the 
period stated. 

An attempt was made by Thomas Aquinas 
and others to justify the dogma of indulgences 
by the doctrine of the extra merits of the saints. 
The saints, it was held, had done more good 
works and had been far better in their lives 
than was necessary for their own salvation, 
and a failing sinner could be helped by the 
extra merits of the saints. The popes have 



Indulgences. 175 

the authority to dispense the extra merits and 
to say in whose favor they shall be reckoned. 
Was it not right that those whom they favored, 
by putting some of those merits to their credit, 
should give money for a good purpose? For 
the poor who had no money for indulgences 
there was no other way to escape purgatory 
than by being careful in their lives to avoid sin. 
There was indeed a fee to be paid also, for 
the priestly absolution from sin and from 
eternal punishment (of hell), but this fee was 
small in comparison with the amount required 
to save a soul from purgatory. Masses were 
also believed to be of benefit to the departed in 
purgatory, provided they be said expressly in 
their behalf. It cost a considerable amount to 
have masses said. Wealthy persons often cre- 
ated endowments whose income was to be used, 
after their departure, to say masses in their 
behalf. Another way of securing indulgences 
was a pilgrimage to Rome, or sending the 
amount required for such a journey to the 
pope. 

The popes were never at a loss to find a pre- 
tense for the collection of indulgence money. 
They would send their authorized represent- 
atives into the countries of Christendom to sell 
indulgences. An exceedingly profitable traffic 
in letters of release from purgatory was devel- 
oped, which led to many more abuses. 



176 History of Christianity. 

Thomas Aquinas is the theologian to whom 
the popes were indebted for fully developing 
and proving as orthodox the doctrines of pur- 
gatory and indulgences. It is a significant fact 
that such teachings were developed and adopted 
at so late a date. Popery was getting away 
farther and farther from the teachings of the 
Word of God. 

Praying to the saints had been approved not 
long after the establishment of state churchism. 
There was, however, some difficulty in ascer- 
taining who the saints were, and there was 
danger that the aid of some one might be 
invoked who in fact was not a saint. It was 
finally decided that those only are saints whom 
the pope declares to be such, and they alone 
should be prayed to and the title "saint" should 
be prefixed to their names. The solemn act, by 
the pope, of declaring a person to be a saint is 
called canonization. No person is to be canon- 
ized until after his (or her) death, and until it is 
proven that he lived a saintly life and possessed 
the power to work miracles. The miracles may 
have been worked during his life, or through 
his dead bones, or through invocation of his 
aid. For Protestants it is, by the way. incon- 
sistant to use the term saints in connection 
with those Christians only who have been 
declared to be saints by the pope, but not with 
the names of saintly Protestants. The fact is 



Romish Intolerance. 177 

that all true Christians are saints and it is 
unscriptural to use this term as a title. 

Thomas Aquinas who lived in this period, 
and who is to this day acknowledged as the 
most orthodox and authoritative teacher of the 
Catholic church (with the possible exception of 
Augustine) was a sworn enemy of the principle 
of liberty of conscience. He proved that her- 
etics ought to be put to death, as well as idol- 
aters, Jews and infidels. The fact is that this 
man seems to have proved as orthodox anything 
which the pope happened to believe, and he, 
apparently, could do it better than any man 
before or after him. The church, however, 
he asserted, "does not thirst for blood, " hence, 
the church should simply excommunicate the 
heretics, and it was the duty of the state to put 
them to death. Saint Tnomas (for so he is 
called), however, be it said to his honor, never 
attempted to establish the principle of religious 
intoleration on Scripture authority. He was 
compelled to call Scholasticism to his aid to 
help him out on this point. He quotes three 
passages which favor toleration (2 Tim. 2: 24; 
1 Cor. 11: 19; Matt. 13: 29, 30) and then pro- 
ceeds to show that the church was right in 
spite of these passages. 

It is superfluous to say that the priesthood 
was considered a particular class of caste. The 
power which they were supposed to possess 



178 History of Christianity. 

did in no wise depend on their personal char- 
acter, but alone on their authority which they 
had received in ordination. A vicious priest 
had as much power as a good priest, and 
whether a priest had a charge (or congregation) 
or not, was of no consequence. The great pre- 
eminence of the priesthood over the laity was 
held before the people in various ways, one of 
which was this, that only the priests received 
bread and wine in the communion while those 
of the laity received the bread only. 



V. 
The Reformation. 

A. D. 1519 to A. D. 1565. 

In view of the great import of the movement 
which resulted in the emancipation of a large 
part of Western Christendom from Rome, it is 
of singular interest to note the seemingly 
incidental first causes of this movement. 

Martin Luther. 

Martin Luther was born in 1483 at Eisleben 
in Saxony. The country of Saxony, a part of 
the German Empire, was at that time divided 
into two states; namely, the Electorate of Sax- 
ony, of which Luther was a citizen and whichi 
was governed by elector Frederick the Wise,, 
the protector of Luther and his work, and the^ 
Dukedom of Saxony, the ruler of which was 
duke George, an uncompromising opponent of 
the Reformation. The electors were German 
princes of the highest rank, it being their right 
to elect the emperor, hence their title. There- 



180 History of Christianity. 

were, in all, seven electorates in the empire. 
Martin Luther's father, Hans Luther, was 
a miner and a hard-working man. Martin was 
brought up under strict discipline, was taught 
to pray to God and the saints and to honor the 
priests. In Mansfeld, where his parents had 
moved, he received his elementary education. 
Later he attended school at Eisenach, support- 
ing himself by singing in the streets. In 1501 
he entered the University of Erfurt, where he 
was a student till 1505. In that year, shortly 
after the sudden death of a friend, and being 
frightened by a terrible thunder storm, he made 
the solemn vow to become a monk and study 
theology. He consequently entered the Augus- 
tinian convent in Erfurt as a monk. Hans 
Luther, who wanted him to prepare for the pro- 
fession of law, was much displeased with this 
step of his son. 

Luther's Conversion. John von Staupitz. 

Concern for his salvation had been Martin 
Luther's sole motive for becoming a monk. He 
was, however, disappointed in his expectation 
to find peace for his troubled conscience by 
self-imposed penance. The severest discipline, 
in the way of self -mortification, night watches, 
fasting, saying of prayers, all proved of no 
effect; nay, made matters worse for the young 
monk. The more of ascetic severities he enjoined 
upon himself, the more he felt the burden of sin 



Luther's Conversion. 181 

within. In this state of mental and moral 
agony it was John von Staupitz who, to quote 
Luther's own testimony, "first caused the light 
of the gospel to shine in the darkness of his 
heart. " Staupitz advised him to study the 
Scriptures and pointed out to him that a change 
of heart and peace of mind is the result of faith 
in Christ. Staupitz 's teaching was as a balm 
on the wounded conscience of the young man. 
He accepted Christ by faith and henceforth 
trusted in him as his personal Savior. Such is, 
in a few words, the story of Luther's conver- 
sion. 

John von Staupitz, the man through whom 
Luther was converted, was a spiritual son of 
the Friends of God (p. 157) and one of the most 
spiritual men of his time. According to 
Luther's own testimony of later years, it wag 
Staupitz who had stirred him up against 
popery. His book on "The Love of God" is 
one of the notable Christian writings of that 
century. He died in 1524. 

Luther as a Converted but Unenlightened Romanist* 

It should be noted that the conversion of 
Martin Luther, which occurred not later than 
1506, was not coincident with the beginning of 
his reformatory labors. The fact is that even 
later, as a reformer, Luther was not so radical 
in discarding Romish practices as other 



182 History of Christianity. 

reformers; e. g., John Calvin and John Knox. 
For years after his conversion Luther was a 
loyal Romanist. In 1510, ha via g previously 
been elected to a professorship at the Univer- 
sity of Wittenberg (a town in Saxony), he under- 
took a pilgrimage to Rome. When he came in 
sight of the ''Eternal City" he fell upon the 
earth and exclaimed, "Hail to thee, holy Rome." 
He wished his parents were dead because of 
the good opportunity w T hich he had to help 
them out of purgatory. To secure an indul- 
gence he ascended on bended knees the twenty- 
eight steps of the Scala Santa. At a later date, 
however, he informs us, that w T hile ascending 
those steps, the words, "The righteous shall 
live by faith, " were ringing, as it w T ere, in his 
ears. All the moral perversity of Rome and 
the corruption of the papal court which he saw 
did not shake his faith in the Roman church 
and hierarchy — such a "crazy saint," to use 
his own expression of later years, was he at 
that time. In the year after his return from 
Rome the title of Doctor of Divinity was con- 
ferred upon him (1512). 

Luther and Tetzel. 

In 1517 the notorious John Tetzel was com- 
missioned to sell indulgences in northern Ger- 
many. Pope Leo X. needed money, professedly 
for the rebuilding of St. Peter's church in 



Luther and Tetzel. 183 

Rome, and he was ready to shorten the pains of 
purgatory for those who would give of their 
means for this purpose. Two men were greatly 
vexed to see Tetzel come to Saxony; namely, 
the elector Frederick the Wise who was loathe 
to have his subjects send their hard earned 
money to Rome, and Martin Luther whose 
moral nature rebelled against the way and 
manner in which Tetzel performed his task. 
For while according to the official teaching of 
the Roman church indulgences are effective 
only against the ' 'temporal punishment'' of 
purgatory, Tetzel assured the people in sale- 
cry-fashion that money for indulgences would 
accomplish everything, both in the way of 
relieving them of their own sins and helping 
their departed friends out of purgatory. In the 
confessional, Luther encountered those who 
had bought indulgences, and who maintained 
that according to Tetzel's assurance they were 
not under duty to do the penance which Luther 
had laid on them as a prerequisite to their abso- 
lution. 

The Theses Controversy. 

In consequence of these difficulties, Luther 
wrote ninety-five theses or sentences on the 
subject of indulgences. On the thirty-first day 
of October, 1517, he affixed these sentences to 
the door of the Castle church of Wittenberg, 



184 History of Christianity. 

having previously notified the bishop, to whose 
diocese the town of Wittenberg belonged, of his 
intention. This was a usual way of publishing 
learned treatises in those days, considerable 
expense being connected with printing. The 
theses were written in Latin and were intended 
for the clergy and students of theology. 
Neither indulgences nor the sale thereof were 
assailed in the theses, — only the abuses of 
which Tetzel was guilty. Luther himself 
assures us later that he was at that time a firm 
believer in indulgences, and says (not without 
exaggeration) that he would, then, have ' 'readily 
killed any person who refused obedience to 
the pope. " The theses appeared somewhat 
later also in print. Luther was consequently 
attacked not only by Tetzel but by Dr. John 
Eck, a noted professor of the University of 
Ingolstadt, and others, and these attacks, in 
turn, were met by replies from Luther. 

Pope Leo X. was at first inclined to look 
upon the theses controversy as a mere monkish 
quarrel; fearing, however, that something more 
serious might develop from it, he took steps to 
silence the zealous monk. He demanded of the 
elector of Saxony to send Luther to Rome to 
answer the charges against him. This, the 
elector who, by the way, was one of the most 
powerful princes of the empire, refused. The 
pope finally published a bull condemning the 



The Theses Controversy. 185 

abuses of which certain venders of indulgences 
were guilty, and in 151 9 sent his nuncio, Charles 
von Miltitz, to confer with Luther. Miltitz 
met Luther at Altenburg, was exceedingly 
polite and in many w T ords deplored the offence 
which had been caused by Tetzel. Luther 
agreed to let the matter rest and keep silence 
on the questions in dispute, provided that his 
opponents also would be silent. In a sermon 
he warned the people against the sin of separat- 
ing from the holy Catholic church. On the 
third day of March, 1519, he wrote a very sub- 
missive letter to the pope, assuring him that he 
had never intended to injure the Roman church. 
Had his opponents not revived the controversy, 
all would, for the time being, have been over. 

It might be supposed that many were at that 
time ready to encourage Luther to attack 
popery in general instead of yielding to the 
demands of Miltitz. Such was, however, not 
the case, for Luther was yet a faithful Roman- 
ist. Neither he nor any one else supposed 
that the controversy concerning the abuses of 
indulgences might result in an emancipation of 
a part of Western Christendom from Rome. 
The humanists (p. 170) at that time took little 
notice of the difficulty. Ulrich von Hutten, one 
of the most famous of them, expressed the hope 
that the two monks would eat each other up, 
The clergy and the universities desired a 



286 History of Christianity. 

speedy settlement of the controversy. Not a 
few of them would indeed have welcomed the 
idea of some sort of reformation. This, how- 
ever, was supposed to be the work of a General 
Council. As for doctrine and principle, no 
change was thought of by the leading men in 
church affairs, much less a separation from the 
Catholic church. 

The Leipzig Disputation. 

Luther had agreed to remain silent in regard 
to the theses controversy, if his adversaries 
would do likewise; this, however, it would 
appear, God did not permit. Carlstadt, one of 
the professors of Wittenberg, and Luther's 
friend, had published a theological treatise 
several months before Luther's theses had 
appeared. Eck, of Ingolstadt (p. 184), believed 
that he had found some "unsound teach- 
ings" in Carlstadt's publication. A quarrel 
ensued between Eck and Carlstadt. Luther 
suggested that the two scholars should meet 
for a disputation or public debate. The dis- 
putation was held in the city of Leipzig in the 
castle of duke George (p. 179), from June 27 to 
July 16, 1519. Dr. Eck, believing himself 
superior in learning and the art of debating to 
the Wittenberg professors, attacked Luther also, 
who was thus again drawn into a controversy 
with his former principal adversary. Eck 
debated one week with Carlstadt and two weeks 



Begin riing of the Re fori)} a Hon. 187 

with Luther, on various theological proposi- 
tions. During this disputation Luther changed, 
his opinion concerning the primacy of the pope. 
He finally declared that even a General Council 
may err, and that the Council of Constance was 
wrong in condemning John Huss. By taking 
the part of Huss against a General Council, 
Luther publicly confessed himself a "heretic." 
Both parties, Carlstadt and Luther on the one 
hand and Eck on the other, claimed -the victory 
in the disputation. 

The Time of the Great Reformatory Testimony, 

Hereafter Luther manifested more boldness 
in denouncing what he believed were abuses. 
He soon went so far as to hold the pope to be 
the very Antichrist. He called upon the peo- 
ple to take the work of a reformation into their 
own hands, accepting the Scriptures for their 
sole authority. In rapid succession he issued 
from July to October, 1520, those three famous 
reformatory works, the ' 'Address to the Nobles 
of the German Empire Concerning a Betterment 
of Christendom," "The Babylonish Captivity of 
the Church" and "On Christian Liberty." 
These are the most important and most radical 
reformatory writings that ever came from 
Luther's pen. Without any compromising and 
with full willingness to take all consequences, 
and lay down even his life for the truth, if need 



188 History of Christianity. 

be, he took a noble and positive stand for the 
Christianity of the Bible as far as he had 
received light. He feared God, but neither 
Satan, pope, persecution, nor death. 

The Three Greatest Books of Luther. 

In the ■ 'Address to the Christian Nobles, " 
Luther called upon the people to undertake a 
reformation of the church in good earnest. 
The principal hinderance in the way of reform, 
he says, is the doctrine of a priestly or spiritual 
class who rule the church and claim for them- 
selves alone the authority to use and interpret 
the Scriptures. The ministers of the church 
should derive their authority from the congrega- 
tion and are not to be considered a particular 
class. The power ■ 'to bind and to loose" is given 
to the congregation. A Christian farmer or 
tradesman is as much a priest as an officer of 
the church. E/ery Christian has the same 
right as the pope to judge what is right or 
wrong in matters of faith, and it is the duty of 
every one to be concerned about the Christian 
faith and to search the Scriptures for himself. 
^JThe universities must be reformed, and the 
< Scriptures must be given a prominent place in 
the curriculum. It is not right that "the blind 
heathen master Aristotle,'' with his Greek 
philosophy, should reign in the universities to 
the exclusion of the Word of God. The study 



Luther's Greatest Books. 189 

of theology ought to be reduced, and the study 
of the Bible extended. Many who have studied 
theology for years know little or nothing of the 
Bible. For the understanding of the Bible the 
illumination of the Holy Ghost is far more 
important than scholastic attainments. No one 
but the Holy Ghost can make a Doctor of 
Divinity, and He does not regard gowns or sheep- 
skin and the like. The ancient fathers desired 
to lead us into the Scriptures through their 
writings, but we study their books instead of 
the Bible and thus, instead of leading us to the 
Bible, they lead us away from it. The pope is 
the Antichrist and the enemy of true Christian- 
ity. Unscriptural practices, such as the beg- 
ging of the monks, celibacy of the priests and 
many others ought to be abandoned. — It is a 
matter of regret that literal extracts from this 
highly interesting book can not be given here. 
The book on "The Babylonish Captivity,' ' 
was published about two months later. Luther 
attacked in this work the Romish doctrine of 
the sacraments. He finds only three sacra- 
ments in the Scripture; namely, baptism, the 
Lord's supper and penance. He still believed 
that the grace of God is received through bap- 
tism. He denounced the withholding of the 
cup from the laity, and the doctrine that the 
Lord's supper is a sacrifice, as well as the 
dogma that a change takes place in the elements 



190 History of Christianity. 

of bread and wine when the priest consecrates 
them in saying mass. By their sacramental 
system the priesthood holds the people in an 
outrageous slavery. "I, for my part," says 
Luther, "will set free my own mind, and deliver 
my conscience by declaring aloud to the pope 
and to all papists, that unless they throw aside 
all their laws and traditions, and restore liberty 
to the churches of Christ, and cause that liberty 
to be taught, they are guilty of the death of all 
the souls which are perishing in this wretched 
bondage. ' ' 

In the third book, "On Christian Liberty," 
Luther vindicates the principle of justification 
by faith. The book is rather free from direct 
attacks on popery, and is written in the style 
and spirit of Staupitz and Tauler. Luther 
shows that a Christian is the lord of all and 
subject to none by virtue of faith, and that he 
i& the servant of all by virtue of love. By faith 
man is made free and is justified, but faith man- 
ifests itself by love. It would be a mistake to 
suppose, says Luther, that a Christian who 
stands in the faith, needs to take no thought as 
to living right. Evil inclination is never rooted 
out in this life; hence, it is necessary to be 
watchful and "keep the body under," or Satan 
will get the victory. Yet it is not man's work, 
or his ceasing from sin, which brings justifica- 
tion before God, but faith in Christ. 



Spreading of the Movement. 191 

In an almost incredibly short time these 
books, in many thousand copies, found their way 
over the whole of Germany. The Waldenses 
and other heretics, so-called, which, maintaining 
themselves in secret, were scattered over the 
empire, hailed the appearing of Luther with 
delight. They hoped that he would prove to be 
the Moses who should deliver them from a per- 
secuting Pharaoh, Not, however, those alone 
who had previously opposed Romanism, but 
the great majority of the German people were 
on Luther's side. They were thoroughly 
aroused and became interested in religious 
questions more than ever before. 

Luther's Excommunication. 

Pope Leo X. realized that a strong arm was 
lifted against the papacy. After some hesitancy 
he published a bull of excommunication against 
Luther, dated June 16, 1520, which laid to his 
charge forty-one heresies or false teachings. 
In this bull, the pope called upon God as well 
as St. Peter, St. Paul and all the saints to aid 
him against ' 'the wild beast of the woods that 
had broken into the vineyard of the Lord." 
Should Luther refuse to recant within sixty 
days, the excommunication was to become 
effective and he and his followers were to be 
punished as obstinate heretics, that is to say, 
the pope was going to have them burned *at the 



192 History of Christianity. 

stake (provided, as a matter of course, that he 
find it possible to do so). All governments and 
citizens were commanded, on threat of excom- 
munication and of the Interdict or great ban, to 
seize Luther and his followers and deliver them 
up to the papal chair. Luther's books were to 
be burned, etc. 

This bull of the pope, however, instead of 
causing Luther to be burned, was burned by 
Luther. A copy of it was publicly committed to 
the flames by Luther, December 10, 1 520, before 
the Elster Gate of Wittenberg, the reformer 
thereby defying the pope in the most ostensible 
manner, and separating himself forever from 
the Romish church. 

The New Emperor 

From January, 1519, when emperor Maximilian 
had died, to October, 1520, when Charles V. was 
crowned as his successor, Germany was with- 
out an emperor. The elector of Saxony, 
Frederick the Wise, had no inclination to sub- 
mit to the demands of the pope and deliver up 
the most famous man of his land, nay, of the 
empire, to certain death. He had asked the 
opinion of Erasmus of Rotterdam (p. 170), the 
greatest scholar and the oracle of the age, and 
received the reply that in his judgment, Luther's 
crime was twofold, and consisted in having 
touched the crown of the pope and the stomachs 



Charles V. 193 

of the monks. Luther had appealed to "a 
free general council, " and this was, in the 
opinion of the elector, all that could be reason- 
ably asked of him. 

It was earnestly hoped by the pope that the 
new emperor, Charles V., who had heretofore 
been king of Spain, would use his power for 
the suppression of the reformatory movement. 
Charles agreed to this upon the condition that 
the pope would grant his political support to 
him, instead of favoring France which was the 
natural enemy of Germany. The pope seeing 
no other way to root out "the Saxon heresies, " 
pledged himself to accept this condition. The 
fact,' however, was that the pope could ill afford 
to make "his most faithful son," the king of 
France, his enemy, by supporting the policies 
of Charles. It soon became evident that the 
pope was playing a double game in his attitude 
toward the rulers of Germany and France. 
Charles was not personally in sympathy with 
the movement for reform, but the wavering 
politics and two-facedness of the pope disgusted 
him to such an extent that he refused to under- 
take the suppression of the movement in full 
earnest. He took steps against the Reformation 
only as far as the pope took steps to verify his 
pledge. 



19 Jf History of Christianity. 

Philip Melanchthon. 

The most notable of the co-laborers of Luther 
was Philip Melanchthon (1497-1 560), a professor 
of Wittenberg University. He was Luther's 
most intimate friend and excelled him in 
scholarship. Although a greater theologian 
he was not the man of the people as Luther. 

The Diet of Worms. 

Charles V. caused his first Diet (an assembly 
of the Estates or representatives of the various 
states and free cities of the empire) to be held in 
the city of Worms on the Rhine. One of the 
principal matters for settlement was the reform 
question. Luther was, against the protests of 
papal delegates but on the demands of the 
Estates, personally summoned to appear before 
the Diet, and was for that purpose granted a 
safe conduct by the emperor. Some of his 
friends warned him against taking the journey, 
but, desiring to plead his cause before the 
young emperor and the Estates, he replied: "I 
shall go to Worms, though there were as many 
devils there as tiles on the roofs. ' ' To Spalatin, 
his f riend,he wrote : ' 'If they shall use violence — 
and it is very probable that they will — the 
cause must be commended to the Lord. He 
still lives and reigns who preserved the three 
young mea in the furnace of the Babylonish 
king. If he wills not to save me, my life is of 
small consequence. ' ' 



Luther at Worms- 195 

Having been admitted to the Diet, April 17, 
1521, he was asked two questions, viz., whether 
the books laid before him on a bench were his 
own, and next, whether he would recant their 
contents. To the first question he responded 
in the affirmative, and with respect to the 
second he requested further time for considera- 
tion. He was granted, by the emperor, one 
day to prepare his reply. At the second hear- 
ing, given him by the august assembly, he, 
after a short preliminary speech, said these 
remarkable words : ' 'I cannot submit my faith 
either to the pope or to the Councils, because it 
is clear as the day that they have frequently 
erred and contradicted each other. Unless, 
therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of 
Scripture, I am conquered by the Holy Script- 
ures quoted by me, and my conscience is thus 
bound by the Word of God. I cannot and will 
not retract, for it is unsafe and injurious to act 
against one's conscience. Here I stand. God 
help me. Amen. " 

Most of the princes of the Diet had receivedi 
a good impression of Luther, particularly the^ 
elector, Frederick the Wise, and Philip, the< 
young landgrave of Hesse. The emperor, how- 
ever, and the bishops, agreed with the papal 
delegates who accused Luther of considering 
himself wiser than the whole Catholic church.. 
Charles, at any rate, refused to violate the safe* 



196 History of Christianity. 

conduct given Luther, but, under the pressure 
of the papal delegates, he issued somewhat 
later a decree giving the bull of the pope legal 
force in Germany. Everybody was commanded 
to deliver Luther up to the imperial authorities. 
The people were forbidden under penalty of 
death, to give him food or drink, or harbor 
him. His followers were threatened in the 
same manner. 

Before this edict had, however, been issued, 
elector Frederick ("the fox of Saxony," as 
one of the delegates of the pope had called 
him), had taken steps for Luther's safety. The 
reformer had secretly been taken to Wartburg 
castle in the beautiful Thuringian Forest. The 
elector had given orders that Luther should be 
taken to one of his castles, but that he himself 
{the elector), should not be informed which 
castle had been selected for him, so that, if the 
emperor should demand it, he could state under 
oath that Luther's place of abode was unknown 
to him. Hence, Luther had suddenly disap- 
peared from the scene, and only two or three of 
his most intimate friends knew of his where- 
abouts. It was the general belief that he was 
dead. Soon, however, new books by the re- 
former appeared, dated from "Patinos," or from 
"the region of the air,'' by which such fears 
were dispelled. Wartburg Castle was one of 
the strongest fortresses in Saxony. For eleven 



Lather on Wartburg Castle. 197 

months, namely, from April, 1521, to March of 
the following year, when he returned to Witten- 
berg, Luther had his abode in that famous 
castle. 

Luther on the Wartburg. 

On the "Wartburg Luther exchanged the 
monastic gown for the dress of a knight. He 
let his beard grow, wore a sword, a coat of 
mail and a golden chain. To the garrison of 
the castle he was known as knight George. 
Two pages waited on him. A splendid table 
was served for him. Occasionally he took part 
in a hunting expedition, but most of his time 
was given to literary labors, preeminently the 
translation of the New Testament into the 
German language. He was anxious that the 
secret as to his whereabouts should be strictly 
kept, and in this he was entirely successful. 
He, however, kept in touch with Wittenberg, 
continually exchanging letters with Melanchthon 
and Spalatin, by whom his new writings were 
also published. It may be of interest to notice 
that when he came to the Wartburg, he was an 
emaciated monk, but when he returned to 
Wittenberg he had become corpulent and of 
stately figure, suffering, however, from dys- 
pepsia. 

Up to that time Luther had been engaged in 
breaking down the structure of Romanism, but 



198 History of Christianity. 

as yet, there had been no change made in 
religious practice and worship. The elector of 
Saxony had advised Luther to be slow in mak- 
ing changes, although giving no prohibition 
to that effect. The pressing question now was, 
what should be done in the way of actual and 
positive reform, or in other words, what should 
the new church be like. This momentous ques- 
tion was, in its general aspect, settled by 
Luther on the Wartburg. 
^-^"It would, since the time of the Apostles, be a 
) difficult matter to point out a man of such pos- 
I sibilities as Martin Luther. Never did any man 
L wield the religious influence over Germany as 
did Luther during the first years of his reform- 
atory labors. The mass of the people were on 
his side. Great expectations were put in him 
from the one side, and great fears were enter- 
tained by the pope and the hierarchy on the 
other side, regarding the reformatory move- 
ment. The powers of darkness had combined, 
as it were, against this man. In Worms the 
enemy had come "as a roaring lion. " Luther 
had trembled, but hid finally ccftne out of the 
conflict "more than conqueror." .There is an 
old fable, invented by superstition, that on the 
Wartburg the devil appeared to Luther with 
horns and claws and that Luther threw the ink- 
stand at him, whereupon the evil one disap- 
peared with loud laughter. The manner, how 



Church and State. 199 

ever, in which the enemy came to the reformer, 
was apparently far different from that. 

Of all the questions as to the nature of the 
new church there was none so momentous as 
this, whether the church was to be united with 
the state or not. Luther had the benefit of 
extraordinary precautions as to his own pro- 
tection, by the head of the state. There was 
danger that the reformer would grant to the 
state too prominent a place in affairs of actual 
church reformation. To be a "knight George" 
on the Wartburg was far easier than to go to 
Worms. On the ground of Luther's previous 
reformatory writings it was generally supposed 
that the new church was to be free from the 
state as well as from the tyranny of popery, 
and that liberty of conscience was to be granted; 
i. e. , no one should be persecuted on account 
of religious belief. The great principle that 
every Christian has the right to read and under- 
stand (i. e., interpret) the Scriptures, which 
Luther had so earnestly advocated, necessarily 
involves that the state should not meddle with 
religion by permitting certain teachings only 
and prohibiting others. It involves the 
acknowledgment of the fact that the great con- 
flict between truth and error must be fought 
with spiritual weapons alone. It should be 
noted that only on the strength of this principle 
had Luther a right to differ from the teachings 
of the Romn hierarchya. 



200 History of Christianity. 

It is painful to notice that the reformer, now 
after all, decided on the Wartburg that the new 
church should be joined to the state, and liberty 
of conscience should not be granted. His use- 
fulness as a reformer was greatly impaired by 
the stand which he took in this question. 
While it is unpleasantly necessary for the stu- 
dent of history to take notice of this, we should 
remind ourselves of the fact that the man has 
never lived who would not have been more use- 
ful had he been more faithful. 

The Beginning of Practical Reformation. 

As said above, Roman Catholic worship and 
practice had been kept up unchanged in Witten- 
berg. The people, however, had lost faith in 
it, and had come to the conclusion that the new 
teachings ought to be carried into practice. 
They demanded a reformation of worship on 
the basis of Scriptural authority alone. Carl- 
stadt (p. 186), who was during Luther's sojourn 
on the Wartburg the most influential reform- 
atory leader in Wittenberg, declared, after some 
hesitation, that if the church (i. e., the con- 
gregation) of Wittenberg should pass a resolu- 
tion to do away with the ceremonies of Roman- 
ism, he was willing to comply with a request to 
that effect. At the same time he stated that 
this ought to be done with the consent of the 
magistrates of the town. Elector Frederick 



Practical Reforms Introduced. 201 

the Wise had been asked to take a leading hand 
in the abolishment of mass in his land. He 
refused, saying that such was not his business, 
for he was "only a layman, unversed in the 
Scriptures. " He did, however, not forbid a 
reformation of worship if it could be brought 
about without causing division and uproar. 

It soon became evident that uproar would, on 
the other hand, be the consequence if the prac- 
tical reformation was longer postponed. In 
Erfurt the houses of the priests were entered 
by students and citizens, and some of the fur- 
niture was demolished. Somewhat later there 
was also a tumult in Wittenberg; citizens and 
students entered the town church where priests 
were about to say mass, driving them away. 
Luther was informed of these occurrences, and 
on the Wartburg wrote a book "Against Uproar 
and Sedition." This, however, did not satisfy 
the people who were persistent in their demand 
for a reformation. Carlstadt finally took steps 
to introduce practical reforms. He announced, 
December 22, 1521, in the town church, that on 
New Year's day the Lord's supper would be 
celebrated "in both forms," and without popish 
ceremonies. Fearing, however, that the elector, 
being notified, might advise him to refrain from 
it, he decided to have the Communion celebrated 
on Christmas day. The canons or priests of the 
Castle church of Wittenberg, about eighty ha 



202 History of Christianity. 

number had petitioned the elector to have them 
protected in celebrating mass. The Castle 
church had rich endowments whose income was 
being used to say masses at the rate of thirty a 
day, professedly "for the benefit of the poor 
souls in purgatory. " 

On Christmas day, 1521, Carlstadt with the 
congregation celebrated the Lord's supper, as 
he had previously announced, in both forms 
(p. 178), and without Romish ceremonies. On 
New Year's day, and the Sunday following, the 
same was repeated, great numbers participating. 
More than one thousand persons received the 
Communion on New Year's day alone (the popu- 
lation of Wittenberg was about three thousand). 
By taking this step in the way of practical 
reform, Carlstadt, instead of Luther, became 
the real leader in the reformatory movement. 
He was one of the most learned and aggressive 
of the reformers, the first to assert several of 
the leading principles of the Reformation. He 
had since 1504 been professor at the University 
©f Wittenberg and had been appointed arch- 
deacon. In 1511 he was elected rector or dean 
of the university, the degree of Doctor of Divin- 
ity having previously been conferred upon him. 
At that time he was a friend of Luther, who 
referred to him as his teacher and master. In 
the papal bull against Luther, Carlstadt is also 
named. 



Further Reforms. 203 

Luther was informed of what beginning in 
the way of actual reformation had been made in 
Wittenberg. He wrote to Carls tadt reproving 
him sharply for being, supposedly, too fast in 
these things. Carlstadt, however, continued 
boldly in the course which he had taken. He 
preached against different institutions of 
Romanism and laid aside the sacerdotal vest- 
ments. He also entered the state of matrimony. 
The university and the magistrates of the 
town, as well as all other adherents of Luther, 
approved of the new measures that had been 
introduced by Carlstadt. The elector, however, 
was of the opinion that the Wittenbergers were 
rather fast in introducing reforms, and even 
went so far as to intimate that he would be 
pleased to see the old forms restored, but never 
gave a command or orders to that effect. 

Under the leadership of Carlstadt the con- 
gregation of Wittenberg expressed the opinion 
that the licensing or calling of ministers was 
neither for civil magistrates nor the universities, 
but for the churches. They demanded also the 
suppression of brothels and drink-houses, and 
suggested the institution of a general treasury 
for the support of the poor, as well as the 
removing of images and pictures from the 
churches, and other reformatory measures. 
The town magistrates resolved to have the 
images removed and gave orders to that effect. 



204 History of Christianity. 

A number of students and young citizens, hav- 
ing been informed of the decree of the magis- 
trates, anticipated the officers who were to 
execute these orders. They entered the 
churches, removed the images, pictures and by- 
altars (dedicated to different saints) and burned 
them. In accordance with the ruling of the 
city council, they left the main altars undis- 
turbed. In their opposition to popish practices 
they did not go as far as the Swiss reformers, 
Zwingli and Calvin, who would not allow any 
altars in the churches. Carlstadt, as well a& 
the magistrates condemned sharply the irregu- 
larities, insignificant as they were, which had 
taken place in the removing of the images. 

Certain historians, who take the standpoint 
of state -churchism, have held, apparently in 
order to justify Luther in the course which he 
took upon his return from Wartburg castle, 
that there was, under Carlstadt 's leadership, a 
revolution at Wittenberg, and that Luther had to 
return to restore order. This view has been ac- 
cepted, without investigation, even by American 
historians, but has turned out to be without foun- 
dation whatever. (For a more detailed state- 
ment of the facts, see Herzog Hauck, Realen- 
cyclopaedie f uer protestantische Theologie und 
Kirche, third edition, Leipzig 1901, Vol. X., 
article, "Karlstadt. ") 



Further Developments. 205 

Luther's Return to Wittenberg. 

When Luther was informed of all the develop- 
ments which had taken place in Wittenberg, he 
resolved, against the desire of the elector, to 
return from the Wartburg. Since Carlstadt and 
the Wittenbergers w T ere going much farther in 
the reformatory movement than Luther, and yet 
did not deem it necessary to go to a castle for 
protection, it had become morally impossible 
for him to prolong his stay on the Wartburg. 
Carlstadt had, moreover, been steadily gaining 
prestige as the leader in the movement, 
although Luther had declared himself displeased 
with the course which he had taken. 

It had now become quite evident that there 
were other reformatory leaders beside Luther. 
It was also clear that if the people were given 
the right to decide religious questions for them- 
selves, the time when all Saxons were nominally 
of the same faith, w r as forever past; in fact, the 
indifferent and the unbelievers and the profli- 
gate were apt to be soon without any church 
connection. If Luther would now introduce 
radical reforms, he could indeed count upon the 
support of the great majority of the people. 
There might even be a possibility that his 
genius and powerful personality would carry 
those of his immediate surroundings with him, 
no matter what course he would take; but Luther 
could not be everywhere, not even in the small 



206 History of Christianity. 

country of Saxony. If, then, this great battle 
was to be fought with spiritual weapons only, 
without the interference of the civil authorities, it 
was evident that not all the people would unite 
in one church. If, on the other hand, the new 
church would be united with the state, and 
liberty of conscience would not be granted, the 
nominal unity of the church would be preserved, 
but would not the people then be following the 
dictum of state instead of what they preceived 
to be the truth? Was not, then, the new order 
of things merely a modified form of popery? 

On the sixth day of March, 1522, Luther 
returned to Wittenberg. It had taken him long 
to come to a decision as to what course he 
should take in the great questions of the day. 
That he should follow in the path in which 
Carlstadt was leading seems to have been quite 
out of the question for him. This was impos- 
sible, for the reason that Luther had decided 
that the new church should be joined to the 
state. From the standpoint of state-churchism 
Carlstadt had gone too far in matters of reform. 
Frederick the Wise personally desired to have 
the old forms of worship and Romish usages 
restored in Wittenberg and other places where 
the example of Carlstadt had been followed. 
This wise ruler, however, being much afraid to 
hurt some one's conscience, refused to give a 
command in regard to this matter. It was 



Romanism Restored. 207 

evident that Frederick the Wise would never 
compel his people to accept changes from Rom- 
ish ceremonies and practices. Not all the peo- 
ple of Saxony were ready to accept such 
changes on their own accord. Hence, a nominal 
unity of the church as well as a unity of the 
church with the state could be maintained only 
by retaining the old forms and postponing the 
actual reformation until the elector should 
change his attitude in this question, or, since 
that could not be reasonably hoped for, until 
Saxony would be ruled by an elector who 
would make the introduction of reforms com- 
pulsory. 

Romanism Restored In Wittenberg. 

On his return to Wittenberg, Luther amazed 
his friends, not only by publicly disapproving 
of the changes that had been introduced, but 
much more by demanding that the old forms 
and usages must be restored. He succeeded in 
taking the reins of leadership out of Carlstadt's 
hands. Some of the new departures, such as 
removing the images of the saints and the cru- 
cifixes from the churches he condemned out- 
right on the ground that such images serve a 
good purpose being suggestive of devout 
thoughts. The other changes, such as abolish- 
ing mass he disapproved of, not because they 
were wrong in themselves, but that they had 



208 History of Christianity. 

been introduced inopportunely, there being, as 
yet, some holding to the old belief, and they 
must not be offended. He ignored the fact that 
the majority of the populace of Wittenberg had 
been in favor of the changes which had been 
made, and those who would keep up the old 
forms of worship had an opportunity to do so 
in the so-called Castle church whose priests 
had been opposed to any reforms and had kept 
up the celebration of mass together with all the 
ceremonies of Romanism. 

To justify the stand which he had taken, 
Luther preached eight sermons on eight suc- 
cessive days. His principal point was that love 
will bear with the weaker brother. He endeav- 
ored to show that the Wittenbergers were lack- 
ing in Christian love, having introduced these 
reforms against the protests of weaker brethren. 
He expressed the rather sanguine hope, that in 
course of time everybody would become con- 
vinced that changes ought to be made, i. e., 
that ' 'the weak ones ' ' would become strong and 
no longer protest against reforms. He failed, 
however, to say what would be done if this 
hope should never be realized, or if not all the 
people could come to an agreement as to the 
nature of the reforms to be introduced. "The 
weak ones, " it should be observed, were in this 
instance principally the canons or priests of 
the Castle church who were the recipients of 



Romanism Restored. 209 

the income of a rich endowment fond for say- 
ing mass. A few years later, Luther himself 
asserts that their persistence in the old practices 
was due to * 'their abominable avarice. ' ' They 
had without interruption kept up all the Romish 
forms in the Castle church, but demanded that 
mass should be said in all other churches also. 

The old forms were now restored. In the 
town church, as well as in the Castle church, 
mass was again celebrated in Latin with the 
observance of the ceremonies of popery, the 
ministers wearing their priestly robes, and the 
host or consecrated bread being elevated for 
public adoration or worship in a kneeling 
posture. For those who desired to receive the 
communion in both forms, a special service 
was appointed to comply with their wishes, 
while mass was said at the regular services. 
Luther advised the monks and nuns to return 
to their respective cloisters; he set them an 
example by reentering his cloister himself, 
resuming the cowl and observing the fasts. 
Other Romish usages, such as images in the 
churches, were approved of. 

But how was it possible for Luther to recon- 
cile all this with the principle of Scriptural 
authority? He never made the attempt to 
maintain all these things on the authority of 
the Scriptures. The fact is, he changed his 
view in regard to the relation of the dogma of 



210 History of Christianity. 

the church to the Scriptures. He now took the 
stand that if any given point be not contrary 
to the Scriptures, it may be retained, even if 
there should be no Bible authority for it. 

The Zwickau Prophets. 

The intelligence that Carlstadt had intro- 
duced actual reforms in Wittenberg had been 
received everywhere with great interest. When 
the news reached the Saxon town of Zwickau, 
two men of that place who were opponents of 
Romanism, resolved to go to Wittenberg. Their 
religious ideas were evidently of Bohemian 
origin. Bohemia, the neighboring country of 
Saxony, had ever been noted for its many so- 
called heretics, which were found even outside 
of the church of the Bohemian Brethren (p. 155). 
One of these two men of Zwickau was a cloth- 
maker by occupation, while the other one had, 
for a time, been a student at Wittenberg. They 
held strange notions in regard to the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit, whom they believed to 
favor them with revelations through visions and 
dreams; hence, they were called by Luther "the 
Zwickau Prophets." They also raised some 
objections against infant baptism, without how- 
ever, denying its validity. 

It has been held that Carlstadt had been 
influenced by these men to introduce those 
reformatory changes. Carlstadt, however, had 



The Zwickau Prophets. 211 

entered upon the new course before they 
arrived in Wittenberg. One of them, Nicolas 
Storch, stayed in the town only for a very short 
tim*;, while the other one, Marcus Stuebner, 
was during his sojourn in Wittenberg hospita- 
bly entertained, not by Carlstadt. as might be 
supposed, but by Melanchthon (p. 194). They 
exerted no perceptible influence upon public 
opinion in Wittenberg. In those sermons 
against Carlstadt Luther never referred to them 
or their peculiar ideas, considering them un- 
worthy of public notice. 

Frederick the Wise was asked to banish the 
men of Zwickau from Saxony. He failed, how- 
ever, to be persuaded that these men ought to 
be persecuted for their religious notions. He 
bluntly refused to banish them, adding that he 
was not convinced that God was with them any 
less than with their opponents, and that he 
would rather loose his country and property 
than do anything against God. Hence, Luther 
personally endeavored to induce these men to 
leave Wittenberg. In a private conference 
which he had with them, he asserted that the 
work of God could only be hindered by them,, 
whereupon they left the town. 

Carlstadt's Later Career. 

Carlstadt continued to be professor at the* 
university, but lost his influence. He wrote a 
book condemning the restoration of Romanism,. 



212 History of Christianity. 

but the magistrates of the university, to whom 
Luther's desire was law, confiscated and de- 
troyed the book, a procedure which brought 
them a reproof from the elector. Carlstadt was 
put under various inconveniences. When in 
the following year he received a call to the 
pastorate at Orlamuende, he declared himself 
willing to accept the call if the congregation 
would duly elect him. This was done, and 
Carlstadt introduced the same reforms in 
Orlamuende which he had advocated in Witten- 
berg. The elector refused to interfere. Hence, 
Luther went to Orlamuende in person, endeav- 
oring to persuade the people that they had been 
too fast in introducing these reforms, and that 
Carlstadt was not worthy of their confidence. 
This led to unpleasant scenes, but Luther had 
to leave the town without having accomplished 
his purpose. The old elector, Frederick the 
Wise, was finally prevailed upon to give his con- 
sent to banish Carlstadt from Saxony — a spot 
on his beneficent reign. Apparently he had 
been persuaded that Carlstadt 's activity was 
disadvantageous to the welfare of the state. 

Carlstadt fled from Saxony with his family. 
Two other preachers who shared his views 
were banished with him. In Rothenburg on 
the Tauber, where he had found an asylum for 
a short time, he wrote his greatest book, 
* 'Whether One Should go Slowly," viz., in 



Carlstadt Persecuted. 213 

abolishing Romanism. He believed that the 
many who had lost faith in popish ceremonies 
were placed at a great disadvantage if biblical 
forms of worship were not granted them. One 
should rather rejoice that they rejected the 
idolatrous worship of popery. If actual reforms 
were longer denied to the people the pre- 
tended reformation would turn out to be a curse 
rather than a blessing. Soon he had to flee 
again. Neither Catholic princes nor those who 
were friends of Luther would permit him to 
enter their territory. Henceforth, he passed 
through the greatest hardships as an exiled 
fugitive. Broken in body and spirit, in conse- 
quence of these sufferings, he promised to keep 
silence, and on this condition was in 1525 per- 
mitted to return to Wittenberg. Three years 
later he found it impossible to keep this promise 
and was consequently again forced to flee from 
Saxony. An understanding was finally reached 
between him and the Zwinglians of Switzerland 
(see paragraph on the Swiss Reformation). Later 
Carlstadt was elected professor at the University 
of Basel in Switzerland in which capacity he 
was highly esteemed for his scholarship and 
exemplary Christian character. He held this 
position to the time of his death (1541). 

Carlstadt, one of the notable reformers of the 
sixteenth century, and the first to introduce 
actual reforms, has been grossly misrepresented 



%ljf History of Clivistieurity. 

and slandered. His writings are as noteworthy 
as those of his opponent and agree better with 
the principles of evangelical Protestantism, as 
they are held to-day. His reformatory books 
throw a light on the church history of that 
interesting period, which can no longer be 
ignored. They ought to be published again to 
make them accessible to the public. 

Further Changes In Wittenberg. 

Until the death of elector Frederick the Wise 
(in 1525), there were very few changes from 
Catholic practice in Wittenberg. The principal 
feature in the religious observances of Roman- 
ism, namely, the celebration of the popish mass 
in the Latin language, was kept up during the 
lifetime of Frederick. This was in accordance 
with the desire of the elector, although he had 
never given command to that effect. Since the 
new church was to be united with the state, 
important changes could not be introduced in 
Wittenberg until the state was ready to back 
them up by making them compulsory; other- 
wise such changes would have resulted in a 
separation of church and state. 

The principal reform which was introduced 
in Wittenberg under the reign of elector Fred- 
erick was the abolishment of the so-called 
private masses in the Castle church, which were 
celebrated, supposedly, for the benefit of the 



Private Masses. 215 

departed in purgatory. Luther had finally lost 
patience with the canons of the Castle church, 
and demanded that the private masses should 
cease. The canons, however, appealed to the 
elector who advised Luther that he expected 
him to leave the complainants unmolested. 
While he protected Luther, he desired to pro- 
tect the Eomanists also. Luther, notwithstand- 
ing the elector, continued in the course which 
he had taken, and threatened publicly that 
means would be found to abolish "the abomina- 
tion of private masses. " There occurred public 
demonstrations and tumults against the canons 
in consequence of which the elector commanded 
Luther to cease his threatenings, reminding 
him at the same time of the sermons he had 
preached after his return from the Wartburg. 
The reformer, contrary to these orders, preached 
vehemently against private masses. The win- 
dows of one of the houses of the canons were 
demolished at night and the canons feared for 
their own safety. Luther would not disapprove 
of these occurrences. He, to the contrary, 
threatened that he would leave the pulpit and 
have his place taken by some one who would 
preach in a manner that those private masses 
would soon cease. It was greatly feared that 
the elector would use force to compel Luther to 
obey his orders. At this time evidences of a 
revolution were more apparent than they had 



216 History of Christianity. 

been two years before. The canons, who were 
thoroughly frightened, declared finally that 
they were now convinced that private masses 
were not justifiable. It is probable that they 
had been promised the income of the Castle 
church endowments even if they ceased to say 
those masses for the dead. Thus private masses 
were discontinued in Wittenberg about Christ- 
mas, 1524. Henceforth only the regular services 
of mass were celebrated in the Castle church as 
well as in the town church. A distantness and 
coldness, however, remained on the part of 
the elector against the reformer. 

Thomas Muenzer and the Peasants' War. 

Thomas Muenzer, pastor of Altstaedt in Sax- 
ony, was an ethusiast and a radical reformer. 
According to the assertions of his opponents, 
he believed that all the ungodly should be killed. 
Whether this be correct or not, it is certain that 
he held that civil government ought to be for 
the benefit of the people. The rulers, he 
taught, should derive their authority from the 
governed, and the people had a right to call 
unfaithful rulers to account. He succeeded in 
persuading the Counts of Mansfeld that these 
principles were right. Even elector Frederick 
admitted that "the poor are oppressed by us in 
manifold ways" and believed it not impossible 
that God wanted the people to rule. Muenzer 



Thomas Muenzer. 217 

had established a government in accordance 
with his views in the Free City of Muehlhausen 
in Thuringia. (The Free Cities were ruled by- 
magistrates, chosen by the people who were 
responsible to the emperor alone.) He also 
introduced radical religious reforms doing 
away with all popish forms of worship and 
establishing an evangelical order of church 
services, exclusively in the tongue of the people. 
His teachings, however, were apparently not 
free from an unsound enthusiasm. Luther 
wrote against Muenzer, declaring him to be the 
devil personified. Muenzer published a reply 
"Against the spiritless, easy-going flesh in Wit- 
tenberg." When the Peasants' War broke out 
(toward the close of 1524) Muenzer became one 
of the leaders of the rebellious peasants. Their 
other leaders, it should be observed, were not 
as radical as Muenzer in their demands on the 
government. 

The peasants (i. e., the mass of the people) 
of Germany were held in an outrageous servi- 
tude by the nobles, princes and "spiritual 
lords. " They were in no better condition than 
slaves, theirs being lives of hard labor for their 
"lords. " They were "bound to the soil," and, 
hence, were virtually the property of those who 
owned the land on which they lived. Much of 
the land was held by cloisters and bishops; 
hence, a large percentage of the people were 



218 History of Christianity. 

under the so-called "spiritual lords," by whom 
they were, as a rule, oppressed as severely as 
by the nobles and secular princes. 

There had been various revolutionary out- 
breaks among the peasants before the Refor- 
mation. When the great reformatory books of 
Luther appeared (p. 187) it was hoped, not only 
that Luther would free the church from bond- 
age, but the peasants hoped that the hour of 
deliverance from civil bondage was also about 
to come for them. Toward the close of the year 
1524, the peasants rose in arms in different 
parts of the empire. They had formulated their 
demands in twelve articles, and proposed to 
compel the princes to comply with them. Their 
demands were indeed reasonable. The first 
article was that the preaching of the gospel 
should be free, and the people should have the 
right to choose their own minister, while the 
last article stated that they were ready to drop 
any one of their demands which might be 
proven against the teachings of the Scripture. 
Several of the Free Cities and of the lesser 
princes identified themselves w r ith their cause. 

Luther foresaw that the movement, if suc- 
cessful, would result in a separation of the 
church from the state, and it w 7 as apparently 
for this reason that he was an uncompromising 
opponent of the peasants. He had to admit 
that some of their demands were reasonable, 



The Peasants' War. 219 

but asserted that they acted on a wrong princi- 
ple in assuming to tell the princes and nobles 
how they should rule. He earnestly admonished 
the peasants to be satisfied with their condition 
and lay down their arms. When this advice 
was not heeded, he wrote a book against them, 
which does little honor to his name as a 
reformer. He asserted that a pious Christian 
should rather die a hundred deaths than yield a 
hair's breadth to the demands of the peasants. 
He called upon the magistrates to put down the 
rebellion, showing them no pity, and asserted 
that they shouid be killed "like mad dogs." 
The sensation which this book created was as 
great as that of his first great writings, but was 
of a different nature. The reformer lost pres- 
tige even with those who were not in sympathy 
with the peasants' movement, especially when 
he, seeing the dissatisfaction which the book 
had caused, wrote another book, justifying the 
stand which he had taken and refusing to take 
back one word of what he had written on the 
subject. 

The armies of the peasants, although badly 
armed, had a number of victories in various 
parts of the land. When the city of Weinsberg, 
in Swabia, had been taken by storm, the Counts 
of Helfenstein, who were the commanders of 
the city's forces, were sentenced to death and 
put to the sword by the victorious peasants. 



220 History of Christianity. 

This occurrence has often been repeated in 
histories, but it has generally been ignored that 
the Counts of Helfenstein had shortly before 
become guilty of having their men shoot at the 
envoys of the peasants. In the decisive battle 
of Frankenhausen, in Thuringia (May 15, 1525), 
the peasants were defeated by the armies of 
the princes. Many hundreds of peasants, who 
had been taken prisoners, were executed in the 
various states. The end of the rebellion left 
the peasants in a condition more deplorable 
than ever. Muenzer, who had been one of the 
leaders at Frankenhausen, having been taken 
prisoner, was tortured and beheaded. He had 
been convinced that theirs was a righteous 
cause, and, reasoning from this, he had in his 
enthusiasm concluded that defeat was impossi- 
ble. When the defeat came, he took it as an 
indication that they had erred and God was not 
with them. He earnestly asked the forgiveness 
of God and men for the errors into which he 
had fallen, and died in Christian composure and 
resignation. 

A New Period in the Lutheran Reformation. 

Elector Frederick the Wise, of Saxony, one 
of the most enlightened rulers of his time, died 
May 5, 1525, and was succeeded by his brother 
John, called "the Constant." Frederick had 
protected Luther and his work, as well as his 



Lutheran Reformation. 221 

Romish subjects in their religious practices. 
The new elector, however, who had for years 
been known as a friend of Luther and his teach- 
ings, entered upon a different policy. He con- 
sented to introduce, in his whole land, such 
reforms as Luther might recommend. While 
practical reforms had been postponed to this 
time, there was now a rapid development in the 
way of practical reformation. In fact, what the 
church of Saxony was made in the years 1525 
and 1526 it remained ever afterward, no im- 
portant reforms being introduced later during 
the life time of Luther. There is only one 
noteworthy exception to this statement. The 
elevation of the consecrated bread, for public 
adoration in kneeling posture, did not cease in 
Wittenberg till the year 1541. It is remarkable 
that this is the year in which Carlstadt (p. 202), 
who had rejected this practice as idolatrous, 
had died. 

Luther advised the elector, John the Con- 
stant, that only one creed should be tolerated 
in Saxony; that is to say, the adherents of the 
Romish pope, as well as those who might follow 
other reformers than Luther, should not be 
tolerated. On August 16, 1525, the elector 
decreed that mass should cease and the priests 
of his land should follow the new order of pub- 
lic service, which had just been published by 
Luther: they should preach the gospel and, in 



222 History of Christianity. 

the celebration of the Communion, give the cup 
as well as the bread to the laity. In the follow- 
ing year, Luther gave it as his opinion that it 
should be made compulsory for the inhabitants 
of the land to support the church. Elector 
John, in 1527, gave orders that not only should 
all priests, who failed to comply with all the 
instructions given by the emissaries of the 
government, be dismissed, but any persons who 
might hold opinions at variance with those that 
had been sanctioned in Wittenberg, should be 
banished from the land. The elector added 
that the latter clause was aimed at the sup- 
pression of certain sects which did not accept 
the teachings of the state church in every par- 
ticular. 

The Teachings and Practice of the New Church 
as Compared with Romanism. 

The most important point in which Luther's 
teaching differed from Romanism was the great 
evangelical truth of justification by faith; i. e., 
that man is saved by personal faith in Christ, 
and hence, that the matter of salvation is to be 
settled by each man personally with the Savior 
himself. As far as this great principle was 
consistently adhered to, the condition of things 
had truly been bettered. Certain Romish teach- 
ings were, however, retained, which are not 
reconcilable with this principle. 



The Sacraments. 223 

The number of sacraments was reduced from. 
seven to two; namely, baptism and the Lord's 
supper, but the doctrine of the Romish church, 
in regard to these two sacraments, was substan- 
tially retained. In accordance with Augustine 
and Thomas Aquinas, Luther taught that baptism 
is the means of regeneration or salvation, and 
that salvation is impossible, even for an infant, 
without baptism. According to this doctrine a 
person becomes a Christian by baptism, ancL, 
being baptized, has no need of conversion. 
Now, this teaching has a pronounced tendency 
to neutralize the practical effect of the principle 
of salvation by faith. The fact is that the two 
are antagonistic to each other. This contra- 
diction constituted a source of weakness in the 
new system, to say nothing of the unscriptural- 
ness of the one of these doctrines. 

Concerning the Lord's supper, the Romish 
church held the doctrine of tr an substantiation; 
namely, that a priest has the power to change 
the bread and wine into the real flesh and blood 
of the Lord, although the outward appearance 
of the elements remain unchanged. Luther 
denied that the priests have any such power 9 
but yet he held that the real body and blood of 
the Lord is received in the communion, be the 
recipient a sinner or a saiat. He also believed 
that the Communion is to be observed for the 
forgiveness of sins. (For evidence, the words 



%2Jt History of Christianity. 

of Christ were quoted, in which He says that 
His blood is shed for the forgiveness of sins.) 

As to public worship it should be noted that 
the Catholic mass was rejected, although its 
ritualistic features were partly retained. Al- 
tars and crucifixes were also retained in the 
churches. Purgatory, indulgences, praying to 
the saints, and pilgrimages were rejected, as 
were also celibacy of the clergy and monastic 
life. The people were encouraged to read the 
Bible. 

One of the most difficult questions for the 
new church was how the church government 
should be administered. The government of 
the church had formerly been entirely in the 
hands of the Romish hierarchy. It goes with- 
out saying that the scriptural way to settle this 
question would have been to free the church 
from the state, and thus grant her self-govern- 
ment. Since Luther, however, did not believe 
it best to consent to this, there was no other 
way than to acknowledge the rulers of the land 
as the heads of the church. Thus each of the 
reigning princes of the different states assumed 
the dignity and authority of "summus episco- 
pus" or highest bishop of the church of his 
state. While they were acknowledged as such, 
they did, however, not perform the official 
duties of bishops themselves, but authorized 
others to act in their stead. The people were 



Extent of Reformation. 225 

given no voice in affairs of religion or church 
government. Luther had expected that the 
elector, after having introduced the Reforma- 
tion, would consent to have bishops ordained, 
who were to be entrusted with the government 
of the church; but in this he was wholly disap- 
pointed. 

As to discipline, Luther had hoped that some 
sort of disciplinary measures could be intro- 
duced into the church. When the new state 
church, however, had been organized, he found 
it impossible to do anything in that matter; 
hence, those who had fallen into gross sin were 
not excommunicated from the church. The fact 
that some of the princes who embraced the 
Reformation gave grave offence in their private 
lives (although they were the heads of the 
church) was, without question, one of the prin- 
cipal hindrances in the way of disciplinary 
measures. 

To What Extent a Reformation Took Place. 

If the church is taken to be the body of the 
people, it is evident that a reformation of the 
church means nothing less than a reformation 
of the people. The question, then, in the sim- 
plest words, is, To what extent was the move- 
ment instrumental in leading people to Christ, 
and to strengthen those who had previously 
become Christians? And what influence did it 
have on succeeding ages? 



226 History of Christianity. 

It should be noted that in the Romish church 
the people had professedly been made Chris- 
tians in their infancy by baptism. The official 
teaching of the church was to the effect that 
those who had been baptized and observed cer- 
tain religious forms were Christians. Now the 
question may be raised, On what conditions 
were these people permitted to unite with the 
new (reformatory) church? Or were they left 
under the impression that baptism had made 
them Christians? The answer to these ques- 
tions is that there was no such a thing as unit- 
ing with a new organization on the part of the 
people. Elector John the Constant simply gave 
orders that the priests of his land should hence- 
forth follow the new order of worship and 
preach the gospel, discarding certain Romish 
practices, and clergymen of Saxony were will- 
ing to be guided by these instructions. 

The priests received orders to preach the 
gospel, but it goes without saying that they 
were far better able to say mass than to carry 
out that command. Many of them lived scan- 
dalous lives and were grossly ignorant. Many 
had strange notions in regard to the gospel. 
There are indications that some of these 
1 'preachers" took the doctrine of justification 
by faith to mean that sin is no longer harmful. 
This blasphemous teaching had many followers 
in Saxony, as is evident from the fact that 



The New State-Churehism. 227 

Luther and Melanchthon complain repeatedly 
that this opinion was held by many. 

If we may believe the testimony of Luther, 
Melanchthon and others, the preaching of the 
gospel (as much as there was of it) was any- 
thing but well received in Saxony. The people 
had begun to lose faith in the reformatory 
movement when Carlstadt's reforms had been 
condemned and prohibited. From a religious 
point of view it was difficult to understand why 
those changes should take place just now, when 
only yesterday they had been forbidden. The 
thought that elector John should become the 
head of the church in Saxony was in itself dis- 
gusting. While not a few of the people may 
yet have believed in papal authority, it was 
difficult for a thinking person to understand on 
what grounds the princes asserted themselves 
as the highest bishops of the church, and 
whence they had the wisdom to decide in mat- 
ters of faith izv their whole land. Was this new 
popery not even more absurd than that of Rome? 

The people had formerly been compelled by 
the civil government to remain faithful to the 
pope, but the civil rulers could not think of 
dictating to the pope (and hence, to the people) 
in matters of religion. The rulers simply 
enforced the decrees of the pope. The state 
had been the servant of the church. Now, how- 
ever, the order was reversed. The civil rulers 



228 History of Christianity. 

became the heads of the church. Since they 
were preeminently concerned about state mat- 
ters, the church was made to serve the state, 
taking the place of its humble handmaiden. 
Although the teachings of Luther were more 
scriptural than Romanism, the union of the 
church with the state and the consequent posi- 
tion, which the church was made to take relative 
to the state, proved insurmountable obstacles 
to an immediate reformation of the people. It 
appeared to them that religion was held to be 
a secondary matter which was to be kept up 
for the sake of the state. Hence, rather than 
suffer persecution, the great mass of the people 
fashioned their "faith" according to the com- 
mands of the rulers. They believed in order to 
please the government — much to their own dis- 
advantage spiritually. 

Of the German princes of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, who embraced the reformation, there were 
few of whom it may be believed that they had 
religious convictions of their own. Some of 
them were indeed notorious for the grave 
offences which they gave in their lives. The 
great wealth of the cloisters, which was to be 
confiscated and the desire to have a free hand 
in church affairs, were the weightiest incentives 
to them to become independent of the pope. In 
consequence of the union of church and state, 
and of religious intolerance, each country had 



Changes of Faith, 229 

to accept the faith of its ruler. There can be 
no doubt that the only reason why some of the 
German provinces remained Catholic is that 
their rulers did not embrace the Reformation. 
The fact is that in some of the provinces which 
have remained Catholic to this day, the people 
were more inclined toward the reformatory 
movement than in Saxony. The readiness of 
the people to discard Romanism is an unfavor- 
able testimony as to the religious condition of 
the people under the Romish hierarchy. Yet 
this may partly be explained from the fact that 
they had been led to see things in a different 
light. After, however, the Protestant state 
churches had been established, the people 
showed no more willingness to suffer persecu- 
tion for their new creed than formerly for 
Romanism. Certain provinces changed their 
faith (with their rulers) a number of times. It 
is a remarkable fact that the German Protestant 
state churches can, throughout all these troub- 
lous times of intolerance, point to only very 
few martyrs, and these few were such who had 
become acquainted with Protestant doctrine but 
not with Protestant state-churchism. There 
were indeed thousands put to death, for their 
faith, during the sixteenth century, in Germany, 
but they were independents or dissenters, both 
from Romanism and state-church Protestantism. 
Philip Schaff, one of the most impartial 



230 History of Christianity. 

church historians, has suggested that the rea- 
son why the moral condition of the people was, 
after the Reformation of the sixteenth century, 
worse than before it, was that the change was 
too great. Stopping short, however, as it did, 
of doing away with some of the fundamental 
principles of Romanism, and hence failing to 
emancipate the church from the state, we are 
led to believe that the changes brought on by 
the Reformation were not thorough enough. To 
an unbiased mind it is quite out of the question 
that a true reformation could cause the piety 
and morality of a people to decrease. 

The fact that the teachings of Luther are 
more scriptural than those of Romanism can 
not for a moment be questioned. Had not the 
introduction of the Reformation been put into 
the hands of the princes and magistrates, and 
had not the church been put under the bondage 
of the state and toleration been refused, the 
effect of the movement would apparently have 
been far different. As it was, the new order of 
things was but a sort of a new popery which, 
however, had the great preference over Romish 
popery that it was not apt to perpetuate itself 
as long as the latter. The Reformation of the 
sixteenth century prepared the way for an act- 
ual reformation of at least a part of the people 
which came with the Pietistic movement under 
Philip Jacob Spener and Count Zinzendorf. 
(See paragraph on Pietism.) 



Controversies. 231 

The Reformation In Various Provinces. 

A number of German princes espoused the 
cause of the Reformation. They proceeded in 
a manner similar to that of elector John to in- 
troduce the reformed creed into their provinces. 
Thus the countries of Hesse, Franconia, Luene- 
burg, East Friesland, Schleswig and Holstein, 
Prussia, and others, as well as a number of Free 
Cities, notably, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, 
Strasburg, Magdeburg, and Bremen renounced 
allegiance to the pope. 

Luther and Henry VIII. of England. 

King Henry VIII. , of England, in 1522, wrote 
a reply to Luther's book on the "Babylonish 
Captivity" (p. 189), defending the Romish doc- 
trine of the seven sacraments. The pope was 
highly pleased with the book of the king, and 
conferred upon him the title, "Defender of the 
Faith. " Luther published a reply in which he 
spoke of Henry as "of God's disgust, king of 
England." The book is noted for its many 
abusive epithets and has done the cause of the 
Reformation considerable harm. King Henry 
refused to reply to it. 

A Free-Will Controversy. 

Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had the reputa- 
tion of being the greatest scholar of the age, 
had at first favored the reformatory movement 



282 History of Christianity. 

(p. 192). Later, he pretended to hold a neutral 
position in the conflict. When, however, Luther 
expressed the opinion that man is not a free 
moral agent, Erasmus, in 1524. wrote a book on 
"The Freedom of the Will." To this Luther 
replied, in the following year, by one of his 
most voluminous and noteworthy books, "On 
the Slavery of the Human Will. " He asserts 
that man is utterly destitute of freedom, and 
that salvation depends on the predestination of 
God alone. The Lutheran church, however, it 
should be noted, has not followed the reformer 
in his doctrine of absolute predestination. 

Luther's Marriage. His Literary Labors. 

Luther left the cloister in December, 1524, 
the last of the monks to leave, except the prior. 
He entered the state of matrimony, June 27, 
1525, with Catherine von Bora, a former nun. 
The marriage was a happy one. 

The literary activity of Luther is surprising. 
His German translation of the New Testament 
appeared in 1522, in Wittenberg, while the first 
edition of his translation of the -whole Bible was 
printed in 1534. Lutner's translation of the 
Bible has to this day remained the common 
version of the German people. There are in- 
deed other German translations which follow 
the original text more closely, but no religious 
author has ever handled the German language 



Luther's Labors- 233 

with the mastery of Martin Luther; hence, his 
translation still has the preference with the peo- 
ple. The publication of his "Small Catechism' 5 
for the people, and the "Large Catechism" for 
the ministry, in 1529, was occasioned by the 
evidence of an appalling ignorance of the Saxon 
people, as well as their spiritual advisers. The 
elector had appointed a commission to visit the 
various parishes, superintending the affairs of 
the church. The report which they gave of the 
religious condition of the people was distress- 
ing. Luther also rendered his people great 
services as a hymn writer. His famous Refor- 
mation hymn, 4 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" 
("A mighty fortress is our God"), is of uncer- 
tain date. Some are of the opinion that it was 
composed in 1521. Under the Romish hierarchy 
there had been but little singing in the tongue 
of the people. 

The Diet of Speler. "Protestants." 

Emperor Charles V. was absent from Ger- 
many for several years; affairs in his Spanish 
possessions and a war with France claiming his 
attention. The Catholic princes and a number 
of bishops met at Regensburg, on the Danube, 
in 1524, and resolved that the Edict of Worms 
(p. 196), should be enforced. The princes which 
favored the Reformation, on the other hand, in 
1526, formed a league, at Torgau, to stand 



234 History of Christianity. 

together in the defence of the creed which they 
had accepted. In 1529 a diet was held at Speier 
on the Rhine. While during the previous years 
the anticathoiic princes had outnumbered the 
the Romanists in the diets, it was now found 
that the Catholics w^ere again in the majority. 
Hence, the Diet of Speier resolved upon a res- 
toration of Romanism in all the provinces. The 
friends of the Reformation, however, presented 
a solemn protest. They also drew up a state- 
ment of their case for the consideration of the 
emperor. This document w T as signed by the 
elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, 
George of Brandenburg, the two dukes of Lue- 
neburg and prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, as well 
as the representatives of fourteen Free Cities. 
Those uniting thus in the protest against the 
proposed restoration of Romanism were called 
Protestants, a designation which became the 
name of the party. It should be noted here 
that while in the modern mind the term Prot- 
estant seems to be unseparable from the idea of 
religious toleration, it had no such meaning in 
those days. This is strikingly evident from the 
fact that this very diet resolved upon the ex- 
ecution of a decree to punish, with death, all 
Anabaptists of the empire. (See paragraph on 
the Edict of Speier.) Landgrave Philip, of 
Hesse, was the only prince who refused to 
approve of this measure. He asserted that he 



Swiss Reformation. 235 

could not find it in his conscience to put to 
death any person "for the sake of his faith." 
He even made an attempt to persuade the Prot- 
estant princes to vote against this murderous 
decree, but his efforts were unsuccessful. His 
opinion, however, was not that the dissenters 
(Anabaptists) should be granted toleration, but 
that they should be punished merely by impris- 
onment and banishment instead of by death. 

Ulrich Zwingli. The Swiss Reformation. 

The Reformation of the free country of Switz- 
erland proceeded independently of the Witten- 
berg movement. The leader of the Swiss Refor- 
mation was, at first, Ulrich Zwingli, of Zurich, 
and later, the famous reformer, John Calvin, 
of Geneva. Zwingli wrote in the German lan- 
guage, while Calvin was a Frenchman, the lan- 
guage of western Switzerland, where Geneva is 
located, being French. The Calvinistic creed 
prevailed in Switzerland, the Netherlands, 
Scotland, and England, while in Northern Ger- 
many and the Scandinavian countries the 
Lutheran creed was adopted. On the continent 
of Europe the Calvinistic churches are known 
by the name Reformed. 

Ulrich Zwingli was born in 1484, at Wild- 
haus, in the Canton St. Gall. (Switzerland 
consists of a number of small states called Can- 
tons.) He was educated at Basel, Bern, and 



236 History of Christianity. 

Vienna. In 1506 he was consecrated a priest 
and appointed pastor of Glarus. At Einsiedeln 
where he had later been stationed, he preached, 
in 1518, against abuses in the sale of indul- 
gences of which Samson, the Tetzel of Switzer- 
land, had been guilty. In the same year he 
became pastor at Zurich, the capital of the Can- 
ton Zurich, and began to protest against various 
Romish teachings. During Lent, 1522, the pro- 
hibition of meat was ignored at Zurich, and this 
led to an open breach with the bishop of Con- 
stance to whose diocese the city of Zurich 
belonged. In toe following year a number of 
priests entered the state of matrimony. Zwingli 
himself had married in 1522, but kept the mar- 
riage secret until two years later. Three dis- 
putations were held between the advocates of 
a reformation and the Romanists. The Council 
or civil magistracy of Zurich decided that the 
latter had been beaten and that the Reformation 
should be introduced. The S*iss national 
government, however, as well as the bishop of 
Constance, entered protest against the proposed 
innovations, but Zurich, nevertheless, pro- 
ceeded to abolish Romanism. 

The Swiss reformation of worship was far 
more radical than that of Wittenberg. In 1524 
the civil magistracy of Zurich, with the advice 
of Zwingli, had all images, pictures, crucifixes, 
altars, relics, candles, and all ornaments, as 



Reformation of Worship. 237 

well as the clerical robes, removed from the 
churches. The organs were also removed and 
Latin singing was abolished. Zwingli was, as 
a matter of fact, not opposed to instrumental 
music, but believed it a hindrance in the wor- 
ship of God. All kinds of worship paid to pict- 
ures or relics he believed to be forbidden in the 
second commandment. In the Romish cat- 
echisms, on the other hand, as well as those of 
Luther, the second commandment is omitted, 
while the tenth is divided in two. 

In point of doctrine, the principal difference 
between the teachings of Luther and Zwingli 
was in regard to the Lord's supper. While 
Luther believed that the real body and blood 
of Lord is received in the communion, Zwingli 
took these elements as types or emblems. The 
Swiss reformer granted to the congregation 
some participation in the ehurch government, 
although in a very limited measure, but, after 
all, insisted on a union of church and state, the 
civil authorities assuming the episcopal rights 
and jurisdiction, liberty of conscience being 
refused the same as in Protestant Germany. 
The fact that the clergy of the Romish church 
was retained proved one of the greatest obsta- 
cles for a reformation of the church (or of the 
people). These priests had lived in gross im- 
moralities. There is every reason to believe 
that they would have continued the Romish 



2j8 History of Christianity. 

worship if the civil magistrates of. the Canton 
Zurich would have decided against the reforms 
proposed by Zwingli. From a number of offi - 
cial documents, it is evident that many of them 
continued to give grave offence by their immoral 
lives. 

Zwingli published a number of books against 
Romish practices. A theological school was 
organized in Zurich. Luther's New Testament 
was, in 1524, published in Zurich, adapted to 
the Swiss dialect. The whole Bible was pub- 
lished in German by the noted printer, Fro- 
schauer, in Zurioh, in 1530, four years before 
Luther's complete Bible appeared. Leo Judas, 
the co-worker of Zwingli, had, in company with 
others, prepared this version. Within a few 
years a number of other Cantons embraced the 
Zwinglian Reformation. 

The Anabaptist Movement, A. D. 1524-1530. 

From the name it might be inferred that the 
principal tenet of the Anabaptists was the one 
in regard to baptism, or that they placed more 
weight on baptism than the other churches of 
that period. This, however, is far from correct. 
Their opponents in the state churches did not 
find fault with them on the ground that the 
Anabaptists made too much of baptism, but 
rather that they did not think highly enough 
of it, rejecting, as they did, the doctrines of 



Anabaptist Movement. 2jg 

baptismal regeneration and of the damnation 
of unbaptized infants. The name Anabaptists 
(rebaptizers) was given them by their opponents. 

The Anabaptist movement began when it 
became evident that Luther and Zwingli would 
not organize new churches on the voluntary 
principle, but would merely introduce certain 
improvements in the Romish church, permitting 
the union of the church with the state and the 
world to continue. There were many w T ho had 
the conviction that they were, in matters of 
faith, responsible to God alone and that the 
state had no right whatever to dictate in relig- 
ious matters; consequently, they refused to 
fashion their faith according to the notions of 
"the powers that be. " These people were, on 
the one hand, the old so-called heretics, princi- 
pally the Waldenses, who had maintained them- 
selves in various places of Germany, and, on 
the other hand, those who had, through the 
earlier reformatory writings of Luther and 
Zwingli, received sufficient light to see that the 
Christian church should be established on the 
voluntary principle and should in matters of 
faith acknowledge no authority but the Word 
of God alone; they had willingly followed 
these reformers out of the tyranny of Romish 
popery, but refused to be led backward again 
into the bondage of the state. 

The first church to be organized, in the period 



240 History of Christianity. 

of the Reformation, on the voluntary principle, 
was the congregation of the * 'Swiss Brethren," 
in Zurich, in 1524. When, after the three dis- 
putations of Zurich (p. 236), the decision was put 
into the hands of the civil authorities, there 
were protests raised on the part of some of the 
people, who maintained that it was not the busi- 
ness of the magistracy to decide such questions. 
In the following year, when it became evident 
that a Zwinglian state church was to be estab- 
lished and that discipline was not to find a 
place in it, the radicals, as they were called, 
proceeded to organize themselves into a con- 
gregation. The leading men among them were 
Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, 
William Reublin, and Simon Stumpf. The lat- 
ter two had formerly been priests and pastors 
at Zurich, while Blaurock had been a monk. 
Rebaptism was, however, not introduced until 
the following year. 

The newly organized congregation maintained 
that, while the abolishment of Romish worship 
was commendable, a reformation of the church 
meant more than that. They held that the only 
way in which a reformation or, more correctly 
speaking, a renewing of the church could be 
accomplished was that the people should be 
personally converted to God. They believed 
that those only who were converted and had 
personally accepted Christ were Christians, in 



Anabaptist Movement. 241 

the true sense, and that they should organize 
themselves into congregations, independent of 
the state and separate from the world, acknowl- 
edging the Word of God for their sole authority 
and maintaining a strict discipline. 

Since it had become evident that the Zwing- 
lian church was to comprise all the inhabitants 
of the land, on the ground that they had been 
baptized, Grebel and his friends began to give 
the subject of baptism their attention. The 
great state church had e/er been, and still was, 
full of those who claimed to be Christians by 
virtue of baptism, although their lives gave 
evidence to the contrary. The congregation of 
the "Brethren", as they called themselves, per- 
ceived that the doctrine that baptism makes a 
Christian, was a fundamental error, and one 
that stood preeminently in the way of true 
reform. They also believed infant baptism to 
be unscriptural ; and since they took baptism 
to be the rite of initiation into the Christian 
church, and it was evident that not all children 
of Christian parents will be converted, they 
asserted that infant baptism has a tendency to 
bring unconverted persons into the church. It 
should be observed here that while the early 
Puritans and Methodists (of following centu- 
ries), who also believed that the Christian church 
should be composed of converted Christians, 
did not reject infant baptism, they received 



$4$} History of Christianity. 

into church fellowship only those who had 
become willing to turn from sin unto God. 
Since at the time of the Reformation, however, 
baptism was generally taken to mean regener- 
ation, and the masses had been baptized in 
infancy, there was no more effectual way of 
witnessing to the fact that the masses of the 
people were resting on false hopes, or of insist- 
ing that radical changes were necessary, than 
by denying the validity of infant baptism. The 
Anabaptists asserted that those who had no 
other evidence of their salvation than the fact 
that they had been baptized, had never become 
Christians. In the eyes of the state churches, 
this assertion m^ant nothing less than that all 
those who had not been rebaptized were not 
Christians. The Anabaptists, however, never 
made such a pretension. 

A public disputation was held, January 17, 
1 525, between the leaders of the dissenters and 
Zwingli, on the subject of baptism. The civil 
magistracy decided that Zwingli's arguments 
against the " radicals" had been convincing* 
The latter were forbidden to hold meetings, and 
some of them were banished. On January 25, 
they met again for congregational worship, 
when one of them, Jacob of Chur, arose and 
asked to be baptized. Grebel, who appears to 
have been chosen minister, baptized him and a 
number of others by affusion. 



Anabaptist Movement 243 

Spread of tbe Anabaptists. 

Congregations of the Swiss Brethren or 
Anabaptists, as they were now called (the name 
having been first given them by Zwingli), were 
established at different places in the Canton 
Zurich and also in the cities of St Gall and 
Basel, as well as in other Cantons. Persecution 
ensued. A few more disputations were held at 
Zurich. The Anabaptist leaders, Grebel, Manz, 
and Blaurock, were, on Zwingli's advice, im- 
prisoned and the meetings of their friends 
again strictly forbidden. When these measures 
proved fruitless, the magistracy of Zurich 
issued, in 1526, a decree that all Anabaptists 
who refused to come back into the state church 
should be cast into the Tower "to die and to 
rot, " and those of them who would promise to 
adhere to the state church but would again be 
found to hold Anabaptist tenets should "be 
drowned without mercy." Zwingli was fully 
resolved that all the inhabitants of the land 
should be members of the state church and that 
a separation should not be permitted. He knew 
how susceptible the people were to the idea of 
an independent church. He was in favor of 
employing capital punishment against the per^ 
sistent dissenters. 

The first martyr of the Anabaptists was Felix 
Manz, who was drowned in the Limmat river, 



24 4 History of Christianity. 

near Zurich, January 5, 1527. When the hang- 
man took him on the boat, a minister admon- 
ished him once more to recant, but his mother 
and brothers encouraged him to remain faithful. 
He died with a prayer on his lips. Twelve 
Anabaptists were put to death, in Zurich, by 
drowning; Grebel had died in prison, while Blau- 
rock, a foreigner, was publicly whipped and 
banished. In the Canton Bern thirty -four were 
executed in a short time. In the other Cantons 
they were likewise severely persecuted. Many 
fled northward to Germany, spreading the prin- 
ciples of Independentism as they went. 

In an almost incredibly short time the Anabap- 
tists spread over the countries of Switzerland, 
Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. The 
people had been prepared for the reception of the 
truths which they advocated, on the one hand, 
by the many reformatory books that had been 
circulated and, on the other hand, by the fail- 
ure of the new state churches to effect a real 
reformation. Many Anabaptist preachers trav- 
eled through the land. Their preaching had 
much in common with that of the early Meth- 
odist preachers of a later period. They dwelt 
preeminently on the necessity of repentance 
and personal conversion, and maintained with 
emphasis that he who has never repented of 
his sins nor been converted to God, and conse- 
quently fails to lead the life of a Christian, is 



Hubmeier. 245 

not a Christian, notwithstanding the sacraments 
which he may observe, or the correct teaching 
which he may hold. Many of them believed 
that the Lord Jesus would soon appear to estab- 
lish his reign of peace and deliver his perse- 
cuted followers out of the hand of the new state 
churches as well as of the Romish antichrist. 

Balthasar Hubmeier. 

While both the Lutherans and the Zwinglians 
could point to universally acknowledged leaders 
in their respective denominations, such was 
not the case in the instance of the Anabaptists. 
This was, in part, due to the fact that within a 
few years the prominent men of the Anabaptists 
had perished in the persecutions. The Ana- 
baptist movement was a movement of the peo- 
ple. The ablest exponent and advocate of their 
principles, however, was Balthasar Hubmeier. 
He w r as born about 1480, at Friedberg in Swabia, 
and was educated at Augsburg and Freiburg. 
In 1512 he was called to a professorship of 
Theology at the University of Ingolstadt, where 
in the same year the degree of Doctor of Divin- 
ity was conferred upon him. In Waidshut, on 
the upper Rhine, he embraced the principles of 
the Anabaptists. In 1527 he fled to Nicolsburg 
in the province of Moravia, where the Anabap- 
tists were less subjected to persecution than in 
any other portion of the empire. The Counts 



2Jft History of Christianity. 

of Lichtenstein protected them. Hubmeier 
labored here with remarkable success. His 
eminent learning and eloquence were acknowl- 
edged even by his most bitter enemies. Most 
of his writings were printed at Nicolsburg. 
King Ferdinand, of Austria, finally demanded 
imperatively of the Moravian government that 
Hubmeier must be delivered up to him. He 
was, consequently, in December, 1527, seized 
and carried to Vienna. Having been subjected 
to the torture, and refusing to recant, he was 
burned at the stake, March 10, 1528. His last 
worda were, "Jesus! Jesus!" His heroic wife, 
during the previous few days, had opportunity 
to encourage and cheer him. Three days later 
she was drowned in the Danube. 

Hubmeler's Writings. 

Hubmeier's writings are important, covering, 
as they do, nearly all the points of doctrine and 
practice as held by his party. Copies of his 
books are rare, owing to the fact that the writ- 
ings of the Independents were held to be as 
dangerous, and hence were as eagerly com- 
mitted to the flames as their authors. In com- 
mon with the other writers of the Anabaptists, 
he vindicates the following principles and doc- 
trines: 

The Word of God is the only source of the 
Christian faith. Only the teachings for which 



Hubmeier's Writings. %Jfl 

there is Scripture authority are to be retained. 
As for Augustine, or Thomas Aquinas, or the 
popes, their opinions are of no authority what- 
ever. The highest revelation of God is the 
New Testament. Salvation is of grace by faith. 
The New Testament, however, not only reveals 
how salvation is obtained by faith, but it also 
contains the rules of life for the believers. It 
is very important that the New Testament pre- 
cepts and injunctions should be kept, for that 
is what they were given for by the Holy Ghost. 
Predestination is only a dream of theologians. 
A man who does not accept Christ can blame 
only himself for the consequences. Believing 
adults only are to be baptized. The ordinances 
are not Romish sacraments through which 
grace or forgiveness of sins is to be obtained. 
A union of the church and the state is wrong. 
It is not the business of the state to meddle with 
religious matters, and it is absurd that a man 
should be compelled by the state to accept a 
certain creed. Hubmeier held that ■ 'only those 
are heretics who wilfully and wickedly oppose 
the Holy Scriptures, and even these ought to 
be treated by no other than moral means of per- 
suasion and instruction. M While no one should 
be persecuted for his faith, false teachers can 
not be tolerated in the church. A true Christian 
church can not be thought of without discipline. 
Church government is to be congregational. 



2/f8 History of Christianity. 

The illumination by the Holy Spirit, rather than 
great scholastic attainments, is indispensable 
for the understanding of the Word. 

While in these doctrines all Anabaptists were 
of one mind, there was one point in which there 
was a dissimilarity of opinion among them. The 
great majority of them, with Sattler, Denck, 
Hetzer, Schlaffer, etc. (see the following par- 
agraph), believed that a Christian can under no 
circumstances take part in war or bloodshed, 
1 'for Christ is the Prince of peace and only those 
who non-resistantly suffer with Him shall also 
reign with Him." Hubmeier did not approve of 
this teaching in all its consequences. Military 
service ne held to be wrong only when a gov- 
ernment wages war on unrighteous motives. 
All Anabaptists agreed, however, that in all 
things that are not contrary to the Word of 
God a Christian owes obedience to the govern- 
ment and that he should pay his dues conscien- 
tiously and pray for the rulers. 

There is to-day no church or denomination 
that holds the tenets of Hubmeier in every par- 
ticular, yet the fact remains that he was one of 
the greatest and most enlightened Bible teach- 
ers of the sixteenth century. The principles of 
evangelical Protestantism, as they are held 
today (particularly in America), agree with the 
tenets of Hubmeier and his party far better than 
with those held by Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin. 



Anabaptist Leaders. %J$ 

It is the early leaders of Independentism, 
rather than the founders of the European state 
churches who are the fathers of American evan- 
gelical Protestantism. Hubmeier'g martyrdom 
has not been in vain. The motto of his books, * 'It 
is impossible to kill the truth' ' ("Die Wahrheit 
ist untoetlich"), was not burned with him. The 
principle of church organization on the volun- 
tary system and of liberty of conscience, for 
which he suffered martyrdom, is no longer con- 
sidered a deadly heresy, least of all under the 
banner of the stars and stripes. 

Other Anabaptist Leaders. 

Other leaders of the Anabaptists were Mich- 
ael Sattler, Hans Denck, Ludwig Hetzer, Hans 
Schlaffer, Leonhard Schiemer, Hans Hut, etc. 
Denck was a profound original thinker and an 
able writer. Together with Hetzer he trans- 
lated the prophets of the Old Testament into 
the German language, in 1527. This version 
was printed in many editions before Luther's 
translation appeared. The writings of these 
men, and of others of their party, have in recent 
years been partly republished. By the year 
1529, all these men had died, having been nearly 
all burned at the stake or beheaded. 

Misrepresentations. 

As all other so-called heretics, the Anabap- 
tists were misrepresented by their opponents 



250 History of Christianity. 

and persecutors, and their history has, until 
recently, been known almost exclusively from 
such sources. As to this day the most popular 
Catholic history of the Reformation, in the Eng- 
lish language, accuses Luther of gross immo- 
rality, and certain modern Catholic authors 
assert that he finally ended his life by suicide, 
and as the Zwinglians were, for a time, held by 
the Wittenbergers to be political revolutionists, 
so the Anabaptists, also, were misrepresented, 
not only by the Romanists but by other state 
churches as well. The old calumny that they 
were revolutionists has, until a few decades 
ago, been generally held, but is no longer ac- 
cepted by historians. 

Persecutions of Anabaptists. 

Since their own writings were everywhere 
confiscated and destroyed, there is no more 
reliable record, as to the extent and strength of 
the Anabaptist movement, than the history of 
their persecutions. It is evident that the move* 
ment was nowhere stronger than in southern 
Germany. At first the Independents were put 
to death on the strength of the old laws against 
the heretics. New measures were, however, 
soon deemed necessary for the suppression of 
the movement, for Independentism continued 
to spread in spite of bloody persecution. King 
Ferdinand, of Austria (then a part of Germany), 



Decree of Speier. 251 

and different other princes and magistrates 
issued severe decrees for the persecution of the 
Anabaptists. Duke William, of Bavaria, gave 
the fearful command to burn those who refused 
to recant and behead those who recanted. 
c 'Throughout the greater part of upper (or 
southern) Germany the persecution raged like 
a wild chase," says the Catholic historian Cor- 
nelius. "The blood of these poor people flowed 
like water. But hundreds of them, of all ages 
and both sexes suffered the pangs of torture 
without a murmur, despising to buy their lives 
by recantation, and went to the place of execu- 
tion joyfully and singing psalms." 

The Decree of Speier. 

When all efforts to root out Independentism 
proved vain, the rulers of certain provinces 
resorted to desperate measures. Beginning in 
September, 1527, they had companies of mounted 
soldiers go through the land with orders to 
hunt up the poor heretics, so-called, and kill 
them on the spot without trial or sentence. 
Such outrageous dealing, however, was unlaw- 
ful; but at the Diet of Speier, in 1529, the assem- 
bled rulers and Estates of the empire passed 
a decree to give to such procedure the sanction 
of law. It had now become an open secret that 
if toleration be granted to the Independents the 
very existence of the state churches was threat- 



252 History of Christianity. 

ened. Since the Protestant as well as the Catholic 
state churches were following the teachings of 
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas as to liberty of 
conscience, and were bound to exterminate ■ 'the 
heresies" of Independentism, they had no other 
choice but to resort to such measures. The 
old way of pronouncing sentence over each 
individual heretic and burning him solemnly at 
the stake, had proved ineffectual at this time 
when the ' 'heretical " movement was far stronger 
than at any previous time. Consequently, the 
Diet of Speier, in April, 1529, (see p. 233) passed 
the decree that ' 'every Anabaptist and rebap- 
tized person of either sex shall be put to death 
by fire, sword, or otherwise, without previous 
trial." (It should be noted that, with the excep- 
tion of the Bohemian Brethren, all those who 
had not united with the Anabaptists were mem- 
bers of the state churches.) Thus the sentence 
of deatn was summarily passed upon all Ana- 
baptists. 

In many places the blood flowed in streams. 
The numbers of those who perished can not 
even approximately be ascertained. Thousands 
were put to death, by the executioners, on the 
scaffold or at the stake, aside from those who 
were killed by the soldiers. By the year 1530, 
the movement had been crushed for the time 
being. The Anabaptists who had so far suc- 
ceeded in escaping with their lives, were as 



Marburg Conference. 258 

sheep without shepherds. They often held 
their meetings at night in the mountains and 
forests. Then they encouraged themselves by 
prayer and words of comfort to continue in 
"suffering with Christ ,, ; they read the Word of 
God and also the letters of comfort and cheer, 
which some of their brethren had written from 
their prisons and which were circulated in 
many copies. They sang the hymns which 
some of the martyrs had composed in their 
prison cells and which, in some instances, they 
had sung on the way to the place of execution. 
They prayed earnestly that Jesus would hasten 
to come and make an end to the sufferings of 
his followers, and when they departed they, at 
times, vowed anew to remain faithful to death. 
The blood of the martyrs was not shed in vain. 
They died, but their principles lived. The 
American churches particularly owe more to 
these men than is generally realized to-day. 

The Marburg Conference. 



In June, 1529, a new understanding was 
reached between the pope and the emgeror, the 
latter pledging himself to extirpate the Lu- 
theran and Zwinglian heresies. The P^ptestant 
princes and Estates of Germany, together with 
Zurich, had at the Diet of Speijsr formed a 
secret agreement for mutual protection. The 
leading spirit in the new league was landgrave 



254 History of Christianity. 

Philip, of Hesse, who, with all his faults, was 
the ablest and most energetic prince of the 
Protestant party. Luther, however, when 
informed of this agreement, demanded imper- 
atively that the league between his people and 
the followers of Zwingli must be dissolved. He 
would not, even in political or state affairs, unite 
with "a people who strive against God and the 
sacrament" (to use his own words), denying, as 
they did, that the Lord's supper is the real body 
and blood of the Lord and that it is received for 
the remission of sins. To the consternation of 
the landgrave, Luther prevailed upon Elector 
John, of Saxony, to secede from the league. 

The landgrave finally perceived that the only 
way to accomplish a political union was to have 
Luther and Zwingli come to an agreement on 
the question of the Lord's supper. He conse- 
quently invited the reformers to a conference 
at his castle in Marburg. The Wittenbergers, 
however, would not accept the invitation, but 
the elector ordered them to go. The disputa- 
tion began October 1, 1529, and lasted three 
days. Luther wrote on a table before him the 
words, "Hoc est corpus meum" (This is my 
body), and insisted that these words were to be 
taken literally. To the disappointment of 
many, no agreement was reached on the point 
in question. Since, however, the empire was 
menaced by the Tiu;ks, under their leader Sulei- 



tVar in Switzerland. 255 

man the Magnificent, it was impossible for the 
emperor to undertake any movement against 
the Protestants. 

The Augsburg Confession. 

In the following year (1530) a diet was held at 
Augsburg in Swabia. The first great Lutheran 
confession of faith, which had been drawn up 
by Melanchthon, was presented to the emperor 
and the Estates, at the diet. The Augsburg 
Confession, consisting of twenty-eight articles, 
is a famous statement of Lutheran doctrine. 

Religious War in Switzerland. Zwinglrs Death. 

Gradually, all Swiss Cantons but five, the 
so-called Forest Cantons, had embraced the 
Zwinglian Reformation. The Protestant Can- 
tons demanded of the Forest Cantons that they 
tolerate Protestantism in their teritory. The 
Forest Cantons refused, for Catholicism was 
not tolerated in the Protestant) Cantons. The 
latter decided to compel the Forest Cantons to 
accept the Reformation. Zwingli was in favor 
of attacking the Catholics "in an honest and 
open war, M but, against his advice, the counsel 
of Bern prevailed that the five Cantons should 
be starved into submission. They were for 
their supplies on grain, salt, iron, and steel 
dependent upon the neighboring Cantons, and 
now all supplies of provisions were withheld 



256 History of Christianity. 

from them by a vigorously executed blockade. 
Soon the Forest people organized a large army 
and, with the valor of desperation, rushed upon 
their opponents who had made but little prep- 
aration and were, in the battle of Cappel (Octo- 
ber 11, 1531), completely routed. Zwingli had 
accompanied his people to the battle and was 
one of the many who died on the battlefield. 
In a second battle the Protestants were again 
defeated. Peace was concluded, November 24, 
1531, in which it was guaranteed that both 
Catholic and Protestant Cantons should be per- 
mitted to continue unmolested in the adherence 
to their faith. Heinrich Bullinger was Zwingli's 
successor at Zurich. 

A New Danger to the Cause of the Reformation. 

Landgrave Philip, of Hesse, the leading one 
of the Protestant princes, in 1539, proposed to 
marry for the second time, without divorcing 
his faithful wife, who was a princess of Saxony. 
He desired to become a party to a double mar- 
riage or bigamy, and in November, 1539, he 
sent Martin Bucer to Wittenberg to get the 
advice of Luther and Melanchthon on the ques- 
tion. The reformers, fearing to offend the land- 
grave, advised him that a double marriage could 
not under all circumstances be refused, but 
demanded, in case the landgrave should carry 
out his plan, that it must be kept secret. Philip 



Luther's Last Years. 257 

took the proposed step. The story soon spread 
and the cause of the Reformation suffered im- 
mensely. Melanchthon fell into a deadly sick- 
ness, but was restored by the earnest prayer of 
Luther. The law of the empire demanded cap- 
ital punishment for bigamists, and the emperor 
threatened to have the landgrave beheaded. 
The latter finally bought indemnity from the 
emperor by the pledge to further the imperial 
interests and to join no union which had for its 
object any sort of opposition to the emperor. 
These promises were, however, not long kept 
by the landgrave. It must be said that many 
princes of that time were guilty of heinous sins, 
although they were careful to avoid double 
marriages. 

Luther's Last Years. 

In his last years, Luther was harrassed with 
heavy trials. He declared in many of his writ- 
ings that the people had become more and more 
indifferent since the introduction of the Refor- 
mation, and that their moral condition was more 
deplorable than ever. The students of Witten- 
berg, especially, who were to become the pas- 
tors of the churches, provoked the indignation 
of the reformer by their scandalous lives. Lu- 
ther finally decided to leave the town and sell 
all his property there. Only with difficulty 
was he prevailed upon to remain. His last 



258 History of Christianity. 

years were embittered by the observation that 
the attempted wholesale reformation of the 
church, to be accomplished by the civil govern- 
ment, was not successful. He often expressed 
the desire to leave this sorrowful world and die 
in peace. He died February 18, 1546, and was 
buried in the Castle church. 

Protestant State-Churchism Wiped out of Exist- 
ence, for a Time, in Germany. 

The old duke George, of Saxony, died in 1539 
and was succeeded by his brother Henry, who 
introduced the Reformation in the Dukedom of 
Saxony (p. 179). Henry reigned only two years. 
His son Maurice succeeded him. Maurice was 
one of the most characterless men that ever 
occupied responsible positions in Christendom, 
but he was young, talented and energetic, and 
a natural leader. Although a Protestant prince, 
he agreed to assist the emperor in subduing the 
other princes who had embraced the Reforma- 
tion, and thus to extirpate Protestantism. As 
a recompense for this treachery he received the 
rank of an elector and most of the territory of 
the former Electorate of Saxony, which became 
a mere dukedom. The emperor being^sure of 
Maurice's aid, in 1547, made war upon the 
Protestants, who were completely defeated, and 
their principal leaders, the Landgrave of Hesse 
and the former Elector of Saxony, were taken 



The Leipzig Interim. 259 

prisoners. Emperor Charles V. now proceeded 
to make good his pledge to root out Protestant- 
ism. He enforced, in the Protestant provinces 
and cities, the so called Leipzig Interim, which 
was a law that all Protestants must again ac- 
knowledge the jurisdiction of Romish bishops, 
must observe the seven sacraments, mass in the 
Latin language, and nearly all other Romish 
customs and practices, including the invocation 
of Mary; and the saints. They were, however, 
granted certain privileges, such as the Lord's 
supper in both forms for the laity, the permis- 
sion of marri^e for the ministry, etc., until a 
General Council was to be held, under the pres- 
idency of the pope, which was to decide whether 
these privileges were to be held by them for- 
ever or not. It is superfluous to say that the 
nature of the decision of that Council could well 
be anticipated. 

Since Melanqjathon himself and the other 
Wittenberg theologians were in favor of accept- 
ing these measures, Catholicism was (to the 
extent stated above) reintroduced in every 
province and city of the empire. The city of 
Magdeburg alone resisted, but was finally con- 
quered by Maurice, and there also Catholic 
worship and practice was re-established. Mau- 
rice, however, did not desire to have the church 
of Saxony again ruled by the pope, for in such 
case the state would once more become the- 



£60 History of Christianity. 

servant of the church. Hence, Maurice turned 
traitor a second time. In all quietness and 
secrecy he, in 1551, organized, with the support 
of France, a mighty league against the emperor. 
The latter was wholly unprepared for resist- 
ance, was taken by surprise and well nigh cap- 
tured by Maurice, at Innsbruck, but succeeded 
in making his escape, shortly before Maurice, 
with his army, entered the city. Protestantism 
was now restored in all the provinces which 
had formerly been Protestant. A religious 
peace was, in 1552, concluded, at Augsburg, to 
the effect that both Lutheran and Catholic 
provinces should have the right to maintain 
their faith unmolested. 

The Muensterite Uproar. 

Jan Matthys, of Haarlem, in Holland, was the 
founder of the sect of the Muensterites, or the 
"New Israel. " From the fact that in the doctrine 
of baptism they agreed with the Anabaptists 
or "Brethren", as they called themselves, it 
has often been concluded that they were of the 
same party. This, however, was emphatically 
denied, both by the Anabaptists and the Muen- 
sterites. It has rightly been said that Luther, 
^e. g., in his teaching on baptism, agreed with 
the pope, and yet, both would have taken the 
assertion that they were of one party, as an 
insult. Although Bernhard Rothmann, a prom- 



"Zion." 261 

inent man among the Anabaptists, and others 
of that persuasion, united with the Muenster - 
ites, the great majority of their followers came 
from the ranks of the state churches. 

Jan Matthys, who had been an Anabaptist, 
and a baker by occupation, preached, in 1530, 
that the Lord was no longer to be expected to 
come in person, but that he (Matthys) himself 
had been called to inaugurate the millennium. 
A kingdom of God, in the literal sense, was to 
be established, in which the church and state 
should be united. The whole world was to be 
conquered by the sword, and all the ungodly 
put to death. Matthys gained a considerable 
following. His most prominent disciple was 
John of Ley den, a man of extraordinary abil- 
ities, but an utterly worthless character. 

In January, 1534, John of Ley den came to 
the city of Muenster, in Westphalia (northern 
Germany), followed shortly afterwards by Jan 
Matthys. Bernhard Rothmann, of Muenster, 
formerly a Lutheran preacher, had not long 
before become an Anabaptist. He made now 
common cause with these men. John of Leyden 
endeavored to organize a revolution to over- 
throw the government of the city, and in this 
he was fully successful. The merchant Knip- 
perdolling, who had shortly before become 
John's father-in-law, was made Burgomaster, 
and eventually all those who did not coincide 



262 History of Christianity. 

with them were driven from the city. The 
Catholic bishop of Muenster besieged the city 
with his army, and, from then on, the villainous 
John of Leyden had his own way in the newly 
established "Zion", as he now called it. He 
managed everything on the pretense of a direct 
revelation from God. Jan Matthys fell by the 
arms of the besieging army. John declared 
himself to be the "son of David", of whom the 
prophets of old had spoken. He henceforth 
posed as king of the New Israel. He even intro- 
duced polygamy in "Zion". Then a revolution 
occurred within the walls of the besieged city. 
The people realized what a scoundrel their 
leader was, and an attempt was made to over- 
throw his reign of terror and indecency. This, 
however, was crushed with a bloody hand. 
John of Leyden declared that the siege would 
soon be raised and all those of the human fam- 
ily who refused to do homage to him were to 
be killed. Muenster was besieged for more 
than a year, and finally was taken, June 24, 
1535, by treason. Nearly all the inhabitants 
were killed in the massacre which ensued. 
"King" John and his cabinet officers were 
pinched to death by red-hot pinchers, and their 
corpses were put in an iron cage which was 
hanged on a pole on St. Lambert's tower, at 
Muenster, where it may be seen to this day. 
The Muensterites had adherents in northern 



Memio Simons. 263 

Germany and the Netherlands, but, in conse- 
quence of the siege of the city, the true state of 
things in "Zion" was not known outside of its 
walls. In southern and eastern Germany and 
Switzerland they found no followers. 

Menno Simons and the Mennonites. 

The first and most momentous period of the 
great Anabaptist movement closed about the 
year 1530. In consequence of the unprec- 
edented persecution, the Anabaptists had found 
it impossible to fully organize themselves as a 
denomination. By the year 1581, their great 
leaders had, with thousands of their persuasion, 
been put to death as Independents and heretics. 
The movement had been crushed for the time 
being, but not annihilated. The continental Ana- 
baptists had at least one more great man after 
this; viz., the Netherlander, Menno Simons, 
but the movement had lost its former aggress- 
iveness. Germany has had, since then, no other 
great Independent movement. Many Anabap- 
tists, however, fled to England and spread the 
principles of Independentism on the British 
Isle. In England Independentism has continued 
to have a very important history, while America 
has to thank the persecuted Independents for 
laying the foundation to its greatness. 

Menno Simons, the John Wesley of the six- 
teenth century, was born about 1492, at Wit- 



264 History of Christianity. 

marsum, in Westfriesland (Holland). He was 
educated for the clergy, and in his twenty - 
eighth year became a priest at Pingjum, near 
Witmarsum. By the study of the Scriptures 
he was led to see the errors of Romanism. His 
conversion took place in 1535. He left the 
Romish church, January 12, 1536, and united 
with the Anabaptists. In the following year 
he was ordained to the ministry. As many of 
the earlier Anabaptist preachers, he led the life 
of an evangelist or missionary, traveling from 
place to place, amid undescribable difficulties, 
to strengthen the small bands of " Brethren' ' 
which were found scattered all over the land, 
to preach the gospel, and to organize new con- 
gregations. These meetings were held in all 
quietness, often at night, in barns or in the 
woods. It appears almost miraculous that 
Menno Simons succeeded in escaping the dan- 
gers which continually beset his way. A large 
price was offered to him who might deliver him 
up to the authorities; and at Leeu warden a man 
was slowly tortured to death for no other crime 
but that he had given lodging to Menno Simons. 
In the last year of his life, however, he found 
an asylum on the estates of the Count of Fres- 
enburg, near Oldeslo, in Holstein, where he 
owned a printing press, which he used for the 
publication of his writings. 
Menno 's labors extended over Holland and 



The Mennonites. 265 

northern Germany. Since he was the most 
prominent of their ministers and the ablest 
exponent of their principles, his people, in the 
countries mentioned, adopted the name Menno- 
nites. At a much later date, the Anabaptists of 
southern Germany and Switzerland accepted 
the same name, although Menno had never 
come to the south. One of the most noteworthy 
of his writings is his autobiography and the 
story of his conversion, "Myn Uitgangh van 
het Pausdom" ("My Renunciation of Popery "), 
which must be classed with the great books of 
the reformatory period. Some of his writings 
are directed against the teachings of the Muen- 
sterites, as well as against the assertions of 
some of his opponents, that his people were of 
the same party as the Muensterites. His most 
important books were translated from the Dutch 
into the High German at an early date. 

The principal tenet of Menno and his people 
was that the Christian church should be com- 
posed of converted people who are fully conse- 
crated to the service of God, and among whom 5 
therefore, strict discipline, including the exer- 
cise of the ban or excommunication must be 
maintained. The Mennonites were first granted 
toleration in Holland, in 1581; hence, many fled 
from Germany and Switzerland into the Neth- 
erlands. In 1672 they were formally recog- 
nized in Holland, receiving full religious liberty, 



266 History of Christianity. 

while in Germany and Switzerland they were, 
until a much later date, merely tolerated. Wil- 
liam Penn invited them to come to Pennsylva- 
nia. In 1683 the first party of Mennonites 
arrived in Philadelphia. The first protest 
against slavery in America was entered by 
Mennonites and ' 'Friends' ' (Quakers). 

The Moravian Anabaptists. 

The province of Moravia, where Hubmeier 
had, for a short time, found an asylum (p. 245), 
was the only land of the German empire in 
which the Anabaptists enjoyed comparative 
toleration, although even here they were, at 
times, subjected to bloody persecution. Many 
Moravian noblemen were pleased to have these 
people settle on their estates, for they were not 
only industrious, thrifty and law abiding, 
remitting their taxes conscientiously, but were 
very willing to pay yearly an extra "head tax" 
for each of their members, for the privilege of 
enjoying religious toleration; and the goods, 
which they manufactured in their many shops, 
were famous for their durability and fine work- 
manship. It was with great difficulty that the 
imperial government in Vienna succeeded in 
compelling the Moravian nobles to take decided 
measures against them. These people were so 
much like the " Moravian Brethren" (p. 155), 
who were known favorably to the nobles. From 



Moravian Anabaptists. 267 

the surrounding provinces, and particularly 
from Tyrol, where, in 1531, the number of 
executions had exceeded one thousand, some 
Anabaptists made their escape to Moravia. 
Among them was Jacob Huter, of Tyrol, who, 
after Hubmeier's death, became the most prom 
inent leader of the Moravian Anabaptists. He 
-organized them thoroughly and himself under- 
took missionary journeys to his native province, 
where he was finally captured and burned at 
the stake, in Innsbruck, February 24, 1536. His 
people in Moravia were given the name Huter- 
ian Brethren. 

The Huterian Brethren, in Moravia, distin- 
guished themselves from the Anabaptists of 
other provinces in this that they held their 
goods in common. This system was introduced 
in one of the Anabaptist congregations in 
Moravia, in 1527, and was, in course of time, 
accepted by all Moravian Anabaptists. In spite 
of persecution they enjoyed great prosperity. 
By the end of the sixteenth century, they had 
about eighty communities with nearly eighty 
thousand members. In 1622 they were all 
driven from Moravia in a most merciless man- 
ner. They fled to Hungary and Transylvania, 
where they established a number of communi- 
ties. Soon, however, the government sent Jes- 
uits (see paragraph on the Jesuits) to convert 
them. Their ministers were imprisoned and 



$68 History of Christianity. 

the Jesuits preached in their meeting places. 
They refused to go to these meetings. Com- 
panies of soldiers were sent to assist the Jesuits 
in their work of conversion. At the time of 
services the soldiers were to hunt up the Huter- 
ites and bring them to church, while others had 
to keep watch at the church door to prevent 
their escape from Jesuit preaching. But even 
then the Huterites, instead of listening to the 
Jesuit fathers, would interrupt them with ques- 
tions and contradictions. Some of them suc- 
ceeded in fleeing, under untold hardships and 
dangers, to Roumania and from there to Russia. 
In 1874 they all emigrated to America and set- 
tled in South Dakota. They are the oldest and, 
in some respects, the most interesting of the 
communistic societies of our day. Dr. Joseph 
Beck, of Vienna, an imperial court counselor, 
in 1883, published their history, which is "writ- 
ten with blood and tears. " 

Schwenkfeld and the Schwenkfeldians. 

The Silesian nobleman, Caspar Schwenkfeld, 
a mystic, was one of the profound original men 
of the reformatory period. In many points he 
agreed with the Anabaptists, but, like the 
"Friends" of the following century, he believed 
that the ordinances were to be kept only spirit- 
ually, i. e., without the observance of ceremo- 
nies. In common with a few of the earlier 



John Calvin. 269 

Anabaptists he held the doctrine of the ' 'inner 
word", by which is meant the Spirit of God, 
through whom alone man may become enlight- 
ened to understand the Word of God. Luther 
attacked him bitterly, heaping on him the most 
abusive epithets. He was persecuted in various 
places, although he never endeavored to estab- 
lish a new church. He died at Ulm, in 1561, 
leaving a few followers. The Schwenkf eldians, 
in consequence of persecution, emigrated, in 
1728, from Silesia to America (eastern Penn- 
sylvania), where they have a few prosperous 
churches. Schwenkf eld's works are now about 
to be republished. 

The Reformation in French Switzerland. 
John Calvin. 

At Geneva, in French Switzerland, the Ref- 
ormation was introduced, in 1535, by William 
Farel. In the following year John Calvin came 
to Geneva and was persuaded to become pastor 
of the city (rather only a large town). He was 
born in 1509, at Noyon, in France, and studied 
at Orleans, Bourges, and Paris. In the latter 
city he adopted the principles of the Reforma- 
tion. Calvin went a great step farther, in the 
reformation of the church, than either Luther 
or Zwingli. He introduced strict discipline at 
Geneva. But in consequence of the union of the 
church with the state, which he decided to 



270 History of Christianity. 

maintain, discipline was to be enforced by the 
civil magistracy (as later among the Puritans 
of New England). Calvin demanded that the 
state must consent to be the servant of the 
church, and his powerful genius succeeded, 
after prolonged and severe struggles, in estab- 
lishing this principle in the state of Geneva, 
exceedingly small as it was in territory and 
population; he was, as it were, the pastor of the 
whole little land. Of all European countries, 
which emancipated themselves from Rome, 
there was none in which the moral conditions of 
the people were bettered to the same extent as 
that reached at Geneva. Yet, liberty of con- 
science was not granted. Heretics and dissen- 
ters were executed or banished, and the people 
were compelled by the arms of the magistracy 
to perform what was considered their religious 
duties. Calvin's most notable work is his 
"Institutions of the Christian Religion. " He 
died in 1564. 

The doctrinal system of predestination, which 
is to-day generally known by the name of Cal- 
vinism, was not originated by Calvin, but by 
Augustine. It was, however, fully adopted and 
even further developed by Calvin. Concerning 
the Lord's supper, he agreed neither with Lu- 
ther nor Zwingli, but held that the body and 
blood of Christ are received by the believer spir- 
itually, and yet really, by means of faith, while 



Reformation in England. 271 

the unbeliever receives only bread and wine. 
Calvin's doctrines, excepting his strict views 
on discipline, prevailed in French and German 
Switzerland, parts of Germany, in Holland^ 
Scotland, and partly in England and France* 

The Heidelberg Catechism. 

Elector Frederick III., of the Palatinate 
(1559-1576), one of thee xceedingly few of the 
pious princes among the Protestant rulers of 
the reformatory period, adopted the Reformed 
or Calvinistic creed for himself and his land, in 
1560. Two years later Zach. Ursinus and Cas- 
par Olevianus, of Heidelberg University, com- 
posed, by order of the elector, the "Heidelberg 
Catechism", a famous statement of Calvinistic 
doctrine, which has also served as the creed of 
a mild type of Calvinism. 

The Reformation in England. 

Henry VIII., of England, the king who later 
became notorious for his many marriages and 
for having some of his queens executed, took a 
decided stand against Luther and the reforms 
advocated by him (p. 231). In 1527 he desired 
to be divorced from his queen and made appli- 
cation to that effect to the pope. The popes 
had in various cases granted divorces to princes 
and Henry's desire would, in all probability., 
have been granted had not the English queen 
been a princess of the royal house of Spain. 



^7^ History of Christianity. 

By annulling the marriage of the King of Eng- 
land, the pope would have incurred the ever- 
lasting enmity of emperor Charles V. (who was 
also King of Spain). Since he was anxious to 
maintain the good will of both these sovereigns, 
he adopted a policy of delay. Henry waited 
long for the papal decision. When he realized 
that his wish was not to be granted, he became 
dissatisfied with the pope. If certain German 
princes could declare themselves as the heads 
and rulers of the churches in their countries, 
why could not the King of England do the same? 
In 1534, Henry had the Parliament pass the 
Act of Supremacy, by which it was decreed 
that he was the acknowledged supreme lord 
and head of the church of England — in other 
words, that the authority hitherto held by the 
pope should, as far as England was concerned, 
be conferred upon the king. Many cloisters 
were closed and their wealth confiscated. In 
1537-1539, the English Bible was published, and 
the reading of it was recommended by the gov- 
ernment, but, in 1543, the reading of the Bible 
by the common people was prohibited. No 
other changes of consequence were introduced 
into the church. Adherants of the Romish 
pope as well as Protestants were mercilessly 
put to death. The most prominent person in 
church affairs was Archbishop Cranmer, of 
Canterbury. 



Reformation in England. 273 

Henry VIII. died in 1547. Under his son and 
successor, Edward VI., a limited reformation 
of worship was introduced. Private masses and 
image worship were forbidden, the Lord's sup- 
per was administered in both forms, and mar- 
riage of the priests was sanctioned, w T hile prayer 
for the dead and certain other practices were 
disapproved of. Edw^ard was, in 1553, suc- 
ceeded by his sister Mary, called Bloody Mary, 
who undertook to restore Romish popery in Eng- 
land. The laws concerning the Supremacy of the 
Crown were annulled, and the former creed and 
practices were restored. In 1554 the pope sent 
a cardinal to receive all England back into the 
f ol i of the Romish church. Persistent Prot- 
estants were executed, the number of martyrs, 
under the reign of Bloody Mary, amounting, 
according to the best authorities, to about two 
hundred. Archbishop Cranmer was one of the 
many who were burned at the stake. The story 
of the martyrdom of these people is recorded 
in Fox's Book of Martyrs. Mary died in 1558, 
and was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth. 

Under the reign of Elizabeth, Romish popery 
was for the second time gradually abolished, 
and the supremacy of the crown over the 
church was re-established. A new English 
state church, known to-day as the High Church 
of England, or Episcopal Church, was organ- 
ized. In doctrine, this church is more Calvin- 



27 Jf History of Christianity. 

istic than Lutheran, while, in practice, the 
Romish ritualism has, to a large extent, been 
retained. Hence, the difference between it and 
the Romish church is in doctrine and theory 
far more than in actual practice. There is to- 
day, in the High Church of England, a power- 
ful party which openly advocates a return to 
Rome. (On history of Independents and dis- 
senters in England, see a following paragraph. ) 

The Reformation in Scotland. John Knox. 

Patrick Hamilton was the first to preach 
Protestant doctrines in Scotland. He died at 
the stake, in 1528. The reformer of Scotland, 
however, was John Knox, one of the most heroic 
men of church history. He was born in 1505, 
and was educated for the priesthood. Having 
become aroused to the necessity of a reforma- 
tion, he spent several years in Geneva where 
he enjoyed the intimate friendship of Calvin. 
The Scotch nobles favored a reformation of the 
church. Through the influence of Knox, 
Romanism was, in 1560, abolished and a state 
church of the Presbyterian or Calvinistic type 
was organized. The saying or hearing of mass 
was forbidden on pain of death. The Catholic 
queen Mary Stuart, of Scotland (1561-1567), 
found herself unable to suppress the Reforma- 
tion, and was finally compelled to flee from the 
land. The rulers of Scotland did not have the 



John Knox. 275 

authority of the rulers of most other countries; 
hence, they were not in a position to bring the 
church fully into the bondage of the state, 
although a union of the church and state was 
mutually insisted upon. The Scotch Reforma- 
tion was more thorough than that of any other 
country except little Geneva, in French Switz- 
erland, bringing, as it did, a betterment of the 
religious and moral condition of the people. 
John Knox died in 1572. Of him the regent 
Morton, of Scotland, said at his grave, "Here 
lies oue who never feared the face of afman." 

The Netherlands. 

The Netherlands were since 1519, a posses- 
sion of the Spanish crown. Anabaptist travel- 
ling missionaries were the first to preach anti- 
popish principles in these countries. Later, 
Calvinism was introduced. In vain did the 
cruel Duke of Alva, a Spanish general and, for a 
time, the regent of the Netherlands, undertake 
to suppress the antipopish movement by fire 
and sword. After a terrible war, the independ- 
ence of Holland was acknowledged by Spai% 
and the Presbyterian church was made the- 
church of the state. 

The Scandinavian Countries. 

In Sweden the Lutheran Reformation was- 
introduced, in 1527, by Gustavus Vasa, and in 



276 History of Christianity. 

Denmark by Christian IIL, in 1537. In both 
cases the motives were of a political nature. 
The mass of the people were opposed to the 
introduction of a new creed and new order of 
worship. They did, for the most part, not un- 
derstand the significance of the changes, and 
hence, did not appreciate them. 

France. The Huguenots. 

In France the teachings of John Calvin gained 
many followers. They were called Huguenots. 
Many were put to death as heretics. While 
the beginning of the movement was purely 
religious, later a political party identified 
their cause with that of the Huguenots, and 
the movement became largely political. Civil 
war broke out, but in 1570 an agreement of 
peace was reached. A terrible massacre of 
Huguenots, called "the Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, " took place on August 24, 1572 (the 
day of St. Bartholomew). On a given sign many 
of the Guises, or Catholic party, rushed upon 
the unsuspecting Huguenots, at midnight, kill- 
ing many thousands of them in Paris and other 
parts of France. One of the first and most 
distinguished victims was the noble Admiral 
Oaspary de Coligny. The carnage lasted four 
days. Pope Gregory XIII., having been in- 
formed of the destruction of the French her- 
petics, ordered a service of thanksgiving to be 



Italy and Spain. 277 

held at Rome. The Huguenots, who were in 
possession of many strongholds and forts, re- 
newed the civil war. In 1576, religious freedom 
was granted to them, and, in 1598, they were, 
by the famous Edict of Nantes, given equality 
with the Catholics in all civil rights and priv- 
ileges. 

Italy and Spain. 

In Italy, as well as in Spain and Portugal,. 
Protestant doctrines spread to a considerable 
extent, but the governments were strongly 
opposed to the Reformation, and the movement 
was crushed, at an early date, in all these coun- 
tries. Many were put to death for heresy and 
apostacy from the Romish church.. 



VI. 

Catholic and Protestant State 

Churches After the 

Reformation. 

A. D. 1565 to A. D. 1700. 

The Protestant state churches of the period 
following the Reformation were, with a few 
exceptions, in no better condition, spiritually, 
than the Romish church. But although the 
people had not been reformed by the Reforma- 
tion, it is evident that by this great movement 
conditions were created by which true reforma- 
tions were eventually made possible. 

The Counter Reformation. 

The Catholic church itself was favorably 
affected by the Protestant Reformation. The 
pope and hierarchy were made to realize that 
"a new leaf had to be turned" and reforms had 
to be inaugurated. A great General Council 
was held in the city of Trent (1545-1563). Al- 
though all Protestant doctrines were solemnly 



The Counter Reformation. 279 

condemned, and the principles of Augustine 
and Thomas Aquinas, including that of the 
supreme authority of the pope, were reasserted, 
yet many reformatory measures were intro- 
duced, such as insisting upon better morals for 
the priesthood and hierarchy (including the 
pope himself). The dogma of indulgences was 
upheld, but the popes dared no longer, or only 
in exceptional cases and in certain countries, 
carry on a traffic in letters of indulgence. The 
Catholic counter reformation, however, affected 
principally those Catholic countries or prov- 
inces in which the Protestants had gained a 
foothold. From the present religious conditions 
of the purely Catholic countries, such as Italy, 
Spain, and South America, some idea may be 
obtained as to the prevailing conditions previ- 
ous to the Reformation. 

The Jesuits. 

A number of new monastic orders were 
founded during the Reformation period. By 
far the most important of them is the order of 
the Jesuits whose founder was the Spaniard, 
Ignatius Loyola (1491-1558). Loyola had been 
an officer in the army. He dedicated himself, 
in 1521, to the service of the Holy Virgin, 
resolving to found a new monastic society for 
the purpose of spreading and strengthening 
the Catholic church. Pope Paul III., in 1540, 



280 History of Christianity. 

sanctioned the " Jesuit" order. In 1556, it had 
one thousand members. One of the avowed 
aims of the Jesuits was nothing less than to 
exterminate Protestantism; and in the means 
which they employed to that end, they were 
not at all scrupulous, believing, in fact, that 
the end justifies the means. The zeal with 
which many of them devoted themselves to 
their work, is remarkable. Many also w ent as 
missionaries to heathen countries. The most 
interesting figure among the Jesuits is "Francis 
Xavier who (after 1542) labored as a missionary 
in India. Pope Clement XIV., in 1773, sup- 
pressed the Jesuit order (numbering at that 
time about twenty-two thousand members). A 
number of Catholic governments had driven 
th^m from their countries, for they had, with 
some success, endeavored to control European 
politics. In 1816, however, the Jesuit order 
was restored by pope Pius VII. 

Conditions in Protestant Countries. 

In Protestant countries, the reading of the 
Scriptures was encouraged. The Bible was, 
however, not yet in the possession of the 
majority of the common people The object in 
reading the Bible was supposed to be, princi- 
pally, to ascertain which creed was right, 
whether the Lutheran, Reformed, or Catholic. 
Practical piety was grossly neglected, yet it 



John Arndt. 281 

appeared difficult to ascertain wherein Lutheran 
orthodoxy really consisted, for in the Lutheran 
state churches a number of fierce controversies 
raged between the theologians. Nicolaus Ams- 
dorf and Matthias Flacius were the leaders of 
the strictest party among the Lutherans. Ams- 
dorf, who had been one of the most intimate 
friends of Luther, went so far as to assert that 
the principle of justification by faith included 
the doctrine that "good works are injurious to 
salvation." Flacius must be given credit for 
vigorously opposing the introduction of the 
Leipzig Interim (p. 259). 

Preaching in those state churches did not 
consist in presenting the gospel of repentance, 
conversion, and a holy life, but in boasting of 
orthodoxy and denouncing those who held other 
theological opinions. One of the first, in the 
Lutheran church, to insist upon the necessity 
of personal and experimental piety, was John 
Arndt (1551-1621), a mystic. He held that those 
only are saved who have been personally con- 
verted and lead a Christian life in conformity 
to the Word of God, and that orthodoxy itself 
will save no one. He was, by the so-called 
orthodox theologians, fiercely attacked for 
these views, and was denounced as an Anabap- 
tist and a heretic. Since he had, however, 
subscribed to the Augsburg Confession, the 
government refused to take measures against 



282 History of Christianity. 

him. Arndt's famous "True Christianity " has 
continued to be used in thousands of German 
families, and has also been translated into the 
English language. He was a forerunner of 
Pietism. 

The Thirty Years' War, 1618 1648. 

The Thirty Years' War is, by many historians, 
held to be the most terrible of all wars. Not 
less than two-thirds of the population of Ger- 
many perished in this religious war, by the 
sword, hunger, or pestilence. It began in Bohe- 
mia, where a large number of the people had 
embraced Protestantism, and extended over, 
practically, all Germany. The Protestants were 
without an able leader, and were not in unison 
among themselves. By the year 1629, the 
Romanists had become masters of the situation 
so far, that the emperor ordered a large part of 
the former property of the church to be restored, 
and, in certain provinces, Protestantism had 
been extirpated. In the following year, king 
Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, came to the 
aid of the Protestants. He fell, in 1632, in the 
battle of Luetzen. Catholic France, which was 
suspicious of the increasing power of the em- 
peror, also aided the Protestants. After thirty 
years of bloodshed and untold horror, a treaty 
of peace was concluded, by which liberty of 
worship was granted to the Catholics, Luther- 



Philip Jacob Spener. 283 

ans, and Reformed, while it was expressly stip- 
ulated that toleration w r as to be refused to the 
Anabaptists. 

Pietism. 

Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705), the father of 
Pietism, had been a student in Strasburg and 
spent one year in Geneva. He labored as pas- 
tor in Strasburg, Frankfort-on-the Main, Dres- 
den, and Berlin. Though a Lutheran himself, 
he believed that the Wittenberg Reformation 
had not been sufficiently thorough. It was the 
boast of the Lutheran clergy, of that time, that 
their doctrines, as well as their administration 
of the sacraments, were scriptural. Now, 
Spener held that the gospel, to bring salva- 
tion, must be personally accepted, and individ- 
ual conversion must follow, or the people will 
be lost in the end. He perceived that the Bible 
is of no benefit if used as an ornament in the 
"spare room". Hence, he endeavored to get 
people interested in the Word of God and their 
own salvation. He held meetings in private 
houses for prayer and Bible study. This was 
soon imitated in other places. Those meetings 
were, however, never held at the time of public 
services. The more earnest Christians were 
urged to form circles, within the large church, 
for encouraging each other in the Christian life. 
These people insisted on the necessity of prac- 
tical piety, which must begin with repentance 



284 History of Christianity. 

and conversion, and manifest itself in the daily- 
life of the believers. As the Anabaptists of a 
previous century, they held that the church is 
to be separated from the world and that a 
Christian should not conform to the ways of the 
world by taking part in worldly amusements, 
vanity of dress, and the like. They were called 
Pietists by their opponents. 

The writings of Spener are full of suggestive 
ideas as to a practical reformation of the church. 
He and his friends were violently attacked by 
the so-cailed orthodox Lutheran theologians. 
In their eyes, Spener was an archheretic and 
a most dangerous man to the peace of the 
church. No less than two hundred and sixty- 
four heresies did the theologians of Wittenberg 
University find in Spener 's writings. The 
Pietists were persecuted and their meetings 
were forbidden in certain provinces, while in 
others they were permitted. Spener accom- 
plished far more than Luther toward an actual 
reformation of the church of Germany. The 
Pietists are at present more numerous in 
Wuerttemberg and in the Rhenish Province 
than elsewhere. 

The English Independents 

While the Independent movement in Germany 
and Holland had, by the year 1530, lost much 
of its former aggressiveness, English Independ- 



English Independents. 285 

entism continued to hold an important place in 
church history. 

The Congregationalists. 

Many of the Anabaptists fled from Germany 
and Holland to England. Some of them were 
burned at the stake, under Henry VIII. About 
1580, numerous Mennonites from Holland settled 
at Norwich, in England. Robert Browne, who 
had come in contact with these people, at this 
place, and had evidently been influenced by 
them, began to advocate the principles of in- 
dependence of the church from the state, and 
the authority of the congregation (or church) 
in religious matters. In consequence of perse- 
cution, some of his followers (who were given 
the name of Brownists or Independents), with 
Browne himself, fled to Holland, in 1581. Some- 
what later, Henry Barrowe became the leader of 
the Independents in England. After 1 594, more 
of them fled to the Netherlands, where they 
founded a number of flourishing congregations. 
The pastor of their church at Leyden was John 
Robinson, a man who must be ranked with the 
great leaders of Independentism. His writings 
were republished in 1851. In 1620, some of 
these people resolved upon emigration from 
Holland to America. They arrived on the 
"Mayflower", November 9, 1620, at the coast 
of Massachusetts and founded the town of 






286 History of Christianity. 

Plymouth. The history of the Pilgrims, or Pil- 
grim Fathers, as they are called, is known to 
every pupil of the American public schools. 

The first English Independents (Brownists) 
had formerly been of the party of the Puritans. 
The Puritans belonged to the English state 
church, but labored for a more thorough refor- 
mation of it. In 1628, eight hundred Puritans, 
under John Winthrop, came to Massachusetts 
and founded the town of Salem, near Plymouth. 
In course of time, these people were, through 
the influence of the Pilgrims, led to adopt Inde- 
pendency as their form of church government, 
while in Virginia and other colonies the English 
state church was established. A union of the 
Plymouth and Salem colonies was accomplished. 
This was the beginning of the great denomina- 
tion of the Congregationalists in America. 

The earliest leaders of the English Independ- 
ents had advocated not only the principle of 
separation of church and state, but also of 
liberty of conscience. Although there was, in 
Massachusetts colony, no state church, in the 
proper sense, religious toleration was, for a 
time, refused to those who did not conform to 
the prevailing creed. 

The Baptists. 

The first congregation of English-speaking 
Baptists appears to be the one organized, in 



The Baptists. 287 

1609, by John Smyth, at Amsterdam, in Holland. 
Smyth, a Cambridge graduate, had been pastor 
of a church of English Independents, at Am- 
sterdam. In 1609, he organized a new congre- 
gation of Independents, differing from the other 
English Independents of Holland in this, that 
they disapproved of infant baptism and insisted 
that believing adults only may be baptized. 
There is, however, an old tradition to the effect 
that there were congregations of English- 
speaking Baptists before that time. If this be 
a fact, they cannot have been numerous, for in 
such case there would doubtless be a record of 
their persecutions. There were, however, 
congregations of Dutch Mennonites at various 
places in England, who held the same views in 
regard to infant baptism. At Amsterdam, in 
Holland, also, the Mennonites were very numer- 
ous, and Smyth had, without doubt, come in 
contact with them. 

Smyth's successors in the pastorate of the 
English Baptist church, in Amsterdam, were 
two men named Helwys and Murton. Helwys, 
with most of his congregation, returned, in 
1611 or 1612, to England (London). Their 
denomination became known, somewhat later, 
by the name of General Baptists. In 1614, they 
fully asserted their adherence to the principle 
of liberty of conscience. The General Baptists, 
like the German Anabaptists, rejected the 



288 History of Christianity. 

dogma of predestination. A Baptist church, 
however, which accepted that dogma was, in 
1633, established by John Spilsbury, in South- 
wark, London. They were known as the "Par- 
ticular Baptists". One of the most notable men 
of the English Baptists was the famous John 
Bunyan (1628-1688), the author of "Pilgrim's 
Progress", which was written in Bedford prison 
and has since continued to wield an immense 
influence for the cause of Christ. It has been 
translated into many languages. 

The first Baptist church in America, was 
organized, in 1639, by Roger Williams (1606- 
1683), at Providence, Rhode Island. The state 
of Rhode Island had, in 1636, been founded by 
Williams, and was the first state ever to be 
established on the principle of absolute liberty 
of conscience. Another large Baptist church 
was organized about 1644, at Newport. The 
Baptists were persecuted in several of the New 
England colonies, as well as in England, but 
enjoyed, especially in America, a remarkable 
prosperity from the beginning. The great 
principle of liberty of conscience, as held by 
the Baptists of England and America, was to 
the effect that the civil magistracy should not 
regulate or interfere in matters of religion, that 
there should be no state church, and toleration 
should be granted to all religious parties alike 
by the state. It must not be supposed that this 



The Friends. 289 

principle, as held by the early Baptists, included 
that false teachers and unbelievers should be 
tolerated in the Christian church. They be- 
lieved rightly that liberty of conscience means 
rejection of all religious persecution, but not 
of church discipline. 

The Friends or Quakers. 

The rise of the Quakers, as of the other Inde- 
pendent bodies, was due to an earnest desire to 
return to the primitive Christian faith. George 
Fox (1624-1691), an Englishman, was their 
founder. He travelled, as a missionary, in 
Great Britain and on the Continent, as well as 
in America, laboring with much success. One 
of the best known, of the early Quakers, is 
William Penn (1644-1718), the famous founder 
of the state of Pennsylvania (1682). This state 
was not only founded on the principle of full 
liberty of conscience, but the leading purpose 
of Penn was, that the persecuted of all lands 
should find a place of refuge. To king Charles 
II., of England, it appeared impossible that 
Penn and his people could be successful in 
their colonizing endeavor, without an army to 
protect them from the Indians; but the history 
of the Quakers proved the error of the king. 
The Quakers were bitterly persecuted in Europe 
and in parts of New England; and many of 
tjhein settled in Pennsylvania. Their teachings 



290 History of Christianity. 

had many points in common with the early 
Anabaptists. 

Arminianism. 

While the doctrinal system of predestination 
is generally known as Calvinism, the principle 
of free grace and free will is, as a rule, called 
Arminianism. Jacob Arminius (1560-1609) wa» 
professor of theology at the University of Ley- 
den in Holland. He rejected the doctrine of 
predestination and irresistible grace. After a 
prolonged controversy, Arminianism was con- 
demned by the synod of Dort, in Holland, in 
1618, and predestination was again sanctioned, 
by the Reformed of Holland. 

King James' Version of the Bible 

King James I., of England, must be given the 
credit for appointing, at the suggestion of the 
Puritans, a number of learned divines for the 
translation of the Bible into the English lan- 
guage. This version, the authorized version of 
the High Church of England, was completed in 
1611, and is one of the best translations of the 
Bible into the English or any other language. 

The Westminster Confession. 

The English Parliament, against the wishes 
of king Charles I., decreed, in 1643, that an 
assembly should be appointed to formulate a 
creed, which was to be accepted by both Eng- 



Westminster Confession. %91 

land and Scotland. In the Westminster Assem- 
bly, as it is designated, the Presbyterians were 
in the majority. While the confession, which 
this assembly adopted (the Westminster Con- 
fession), was not accepted by the Episcopalians 
of England, it has become the great confession 
of faith of English-speaking Presbyterians. In 
1728, it was acknowledged as the authoritative 
creed of the Presbyterians of America. 

The Puritan Revolution. 

England and Scotland had, in 1603, been 
united under one crown. When king Charles I. 
undertook to reign without Parliament, and to 
force the Episcopal system upon the Scots, the 
Puritans of England and Presbyterians of Scot- 
land rose in revolt. The army of the king was 
defeated by Cromwell's "Ironsides", who had 
followed the advice of their leader, to trust in 
God and keep their powder dry. The king, 
having been taken prisoner, was found guilty t 
by Parliament, of high treason and executed. 
Beginning with 1649, England was ruled by the 
strong hand of Oliver Cromwell, the "Protector 
of the Commonwealth of Great Britain. " After 
his death, royalty was, in 1660, restored. Lib- 
erty of conscience was granted in England* in 
1688. 



VII. 
Independentism in the Ascendency. 

After A. D. 1700. 

Gradually the conviction began to prevail 
tkat the principle of liberty of conscience and 
Independentism is not a damnable heresy. By 
the year 1700, there were at least two European 
countries in which the Independents had been 
granted toleration, viz. , Holland and England, 
while in America a number of colonies or states 
had been founded on the principle that xio 
church should be favored or opposed by the 
state, and, later, the government of the United 
States was established on the same principle. 
The countries of Spain and Sweden were among 
the last to grant toleration to Independents. 
While in all European countries, state churches 
have been maintained to the present time, their 
adherents are, except in Russia, at liberty to 
withdraw from those churches. In various 
countries there is manifest a growing sentiment 
against the union of church and state. But 



The Huguenots. 293 

although independency from the state is an 
indispensable condition for the true prosperity 
of the Christian church, it is indeed not the 
cause of prosperity. It goes without saying 
that a church may be formal and worldly or 
unbelieving, notwithstanding independency, 
Yet, it is evident that from the beginning true 
piety was found far more among the persecuted 
Independents and so-called heretics than in the 
State churches. The latter have, moreover, 
especially in Protestant countries, been greatly 
influenced by the Independents. 

The Huguenots. 

King Louis XIV., of France, was instigated, 
by his confessors, to atone for his sins by purg- 
ing the land of heretics. He, consequently, 
revoked the Edict of Nantes, by which religions 
liberty had been guaranteed to the Huguenots, 
and persecuted them with the utmost violence. 
In spite of the terrible penal laws against em- 
igrating, hundreds of thousands escaped into 
other countries. Those who remained were 
continually oppressed by the successors of 
Louis XIV., until, in 1787, they were given 
religious freedom, by the Edict of Versailles. 

Hochmann. Alexander Mack. The Dunkards 

One of the results of the Thirty Years' War 
was a marked decline of imperial power in 
Germany, and a corresponding increase of the 



294 History of Christianity. 

authority of the provincial rulers. Although 
it was unlawful to tolerate Independents in the 
empire, the Counts of Wittgenstein, who them- 
selves were Pietists, entered, about the year 
1700, upon a policy of toleration. Hence, the 
persecuted dissenters of western Germany, viz., 
Mennonites, Pietists, Separatists, Moravians, 
etc., sought and found an asylum in the county 
of Wittgenstein. Amongst the many who came 
to that little land, was Ernst Christopher 
Hochmann (1670-1721), a mystic and travelling 
evangelist. He was truly ' 'a bondservant of Jesus 
Christ," and had suffered much for the testi- 
mony of the truth. His work was of an inter- 
denominational character. One of his friends, 
Alexander Mack, organized an Anabaptist 
church, in 1708, at Schwarzenan, in Wittgen- 
stein, differing from the Mennonites principally 
in this, that they bettered immersion to be the 
scriptural mode of baptism. These people were, 
on account of their aggressiveness, more sub- 
jected to persecution than other Independents 
in Germany. Between 1719 and 1729, all of 
them emigrated to America (Pennsylvania). 
They have become known by the name of 
Dunkards, and have enjoyed marked prosperity. 

Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren. 

The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren (p. 155) 
had hailed the appearance of Luther, as a 



The Moravians. 295 

reformer, with great joy, and expressed the 
hope that they could unite with the new church. 
Soon, however, important points of difference 
became evident. Above all the "Brethren" 
were offended by the lack of discipline in the 
church of Wittenberg. In 1547, persecution 
was renewed in Bohemia. The Thirty Years' 
War brought upon them indescribable suffering. 
They were driven from the country. Some of 
them fled to Poland. Among them was the 
famous educator, J. Amos Comenius, who died 
in 167J as bishop of the Moravian Brethren in 
Poland. In 1715, a religious revival took place 
among the rest of those people in Moravia and 
Bohemia, in consequence of which persecution 
was renewed. Christian David, of Moravia, 
received, in 1722, permission to settle, with 
others of the Brethren, on the estates of count 
Nicolaus Louis Zinzendorf, in Saxony. On 
June 13, 1722, the first trees were felled for the 
new settlement, whicfr was called Herrnhut. 

But who was this count Zinzendorf who dared, 
against the laws of the land, to offer a refuge 
to those dissenters? He was a Pietist who had 
been converted in early youth and possessed a 
burning love for the Lord Jesus Christ and 
His cause. He now reorganized the ancient 
Brethren church under the name of United 
Brotherhood. In 1736, he was banished from 
Saxony. He travelled extensively in Europe 



296 History of Chj'istianity* 

and America, founding churches and influenc- 
ing many to take a more decided stand for God. 
He died in 1760. The Moravians (as they are 
called in England and America) have become 
. famous for their missonary zeal. 

John Wesley and the Methodists. 

John Wesley, one of the greatest reformers 
of the church, was born in 1703, at Epworth, 
England. As a student at Oxford University, 
he formed, with his brother Charles and a few 
others, the Holy Club for the study of the Bible 
and administration to the needy. In 1735, the 
two Wesley brothers went as missionaries to 
Georgia. Among the passengers of the ship on 
which they crossed the Atlantic were a number 
of Moravian missionaries. A severe storm 
arose and the Moravians showed by their behav- 
ior that they had the assurance of their own 
readiness to meet their God. John Wesley saw 
that they had acquired a state of religious 
experience of which he knew nothing. In 
Georgia he showed himself a zealous High 
Church man. After two years he returned to 
England, confessing that "he had gone to Ame- 
rica to convert others, but was never converted 
himself." He immediately sought out the little 
Moravian society at London, and received the 
instruction of Peter Boehler, their minister. 
He was thoroughly converted, and confessed 



Ihe Methodists. 297 

that on May 24, 1738, "an assurance was given 
me that Christ had taken away my sins, even 
mine." From that day on John Wesley labored 
as a faithful witness to the saving grace of 
God, preaching the gospel in apostolic power. 

Wesley, at first, had no thought of separating 
from the High Church of England, but hoped 
and labored for a reformation within its folds. 
The clergy of the church, in general, however, 
refused to cooperate with him, fearing that dis- 
turbances of the peace of the church would be 
the result. Neither did John Wesley agree 
with the teaching of the High Church in every 
point. Hence, a separation was unavoidable, 
especially after he had been led to ordain pres- 
byters, or elders, for the church in England, and 
a bishop for America. 

John Wesley travelled extensively as an 
evangelist. He was a great organizer and 
understood how to put people to work for the 
kingdom of God. His work has not only re- 
sulted in the establishment of Methodism, but 
other denominations were largely influenced by 
it. His most notable co-workers were his 
brother Charles (3 708-1 788)>, the famous hymn 
writer, and John William Fletcher (1729-1785), 
the apologist of early Methodism, also, George 
WhiteBeld (1714-1770), one of the greatest 
preachers of history, who travelled also in 
America. The early Methodist preachers had 



298 History of Christianity. 

to endure much from mob violence. They were 
absurdly slandered and abused in the writings 
of their adversaries. The year 1739 marks the 
beginning of the Methodist church. In 1790, 
one year before John Wesley's death, the Meth- 
odist church had, in Great Britain, one hundred 
and nineteen circuits, and three hundred and 
thirteen preachers, and, in the United States, 
ninety-seven circuits and one hundred and nine- 
ty-eight preachers. The most notable man 
of early American Methodism, was Francis 
Asbury. 

Early Methodism stood for three things; viz., 
conversion of sinners, practical Christian living 
(sanctification) and aggressive Christian work. 
John Wesley was a veritable preacher of repent- 
ance. He was, however, as much interested 
in the practical Christian living of the believers 
as in the conversion of sinners. He insisted 
upon the maintenance of strict discipline in 
the church. The modern notion that there is 
no harm in conformity to the world in her 
amusements and vanities if only the heart is 
right, was utterly discredited by the early 
Methodists. They were men fuil of the Holy 
Ghost who kept aloof from the spirit-killing 
effects of worldliness. They had something far 
better to live for than pleasure, or money, or 
worldly honor; hence, their mighty influence 
for good. 



Religious Revivals. 299 

The United Brethren Church. 

The church of the United Brethren was or- 
ganized by Philip William Otterbein (1726-1 81 3), 
a German Presbyterian, and Martin Boehm 
(1725-1812), a Mennonite. These men were 
earnest and consecrated preachers of the prim- 
itive gospel of personal conversion and holy 
living. Francis Asbury speaks of one of them 
as "the great and good Otterbein.' ' The first 
conference of this church was held in Baltimore, 
in 1789. In 1800, the name "United Brethren 
in Christ" was adopted. Otterbein and Boehm 
were the first bishops. 

The Christians. 

The Christians, or Christian Connection, were 
organized as a church, in 1804, three different 
congregations forming a union. They reject 
all creeds as human and unnecessary. 

The Evangelical Association. 

Jacob Albright (1759-1 808), having been led to 
a thorough conversion, began, in 1796, to work 
among the Germans of Pennsylvania, preaching 
the necessity of experimental religion and a 
holy life. He met with much opposition and 
yet his labors were crowned with success. The 
Evangelical Association was organized in 1803. 
Four years later Albright was ordained bishop. 
His successor, John Seybert (1791-1860), was 
one of the most apostle-like men in the history 



300 History of Christianity. 

of the Christian church. True humility of 
heart and life was his most prominent charac - 
teristic. He preached with wonderful power 
and simplicity, and many were led to Christ by 
him. 

The Disciples of Christ. 

Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), a prominent 
preacher of the Baptist church, advanced the 
view that no human creed should be submitted 
to. The vindication of this principle led, in 
1827, to a disruption between his followers and 
the Baptist church, and to the organization of 
the church ctf the Disciples of Christ. Campbell 
was an indefatigable and consecrated worker, 
and was noted as a gifted debater. One of his 
famous debates was with the unbeliever Owen r 
of Cincinnati. 

The Mormons. 

The faith and principles of the Mormons pre- 
tend to be founded on both the Bible and the 
Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith, of Vermont 
(born 1805), asserted, in 1825, to have found a 
set of new Holy Scriptures, written on gold 
plates. He also pretended to have found a 
pair of prophetic spectacles which enabled him 
both to read and understand them. (Query: 
Why did Joseph Smith not take the precau- 
tion to preserre those original plates, to- 
gether with the prophetic spectacles?) This- 



The Unitarians. 301 

was the beginning of the Mormons. The most 
obnoxious feature of their system is the practice 
of polygamy. While they assert that it exists 
no longer among them, they still hold this prac- 
tice to be commendable. They are, however, 
very religious and their zeal would be worthy 
of a better cause. 

The Unitarians. 

The most radical of the so called liberal 
churches are the Unitarians. The first Unita- 
rian societies in the United States were organ- 
ized about the middle of the eighteenth century. 
They have retained the Christian name, but 
deny all the fundamental principles of Christi- 
anity; viz., the deity of Christ, the fall of man, 
redemption through Christ, etc., some of them 
questioning even the immortality of the soul. 
Many have, through their influence, been 
estranged from the Christian faith, but have 
refused to unite with them, asserting that if 
they be right there is no occasion, or excuse, for 
asking the people to support a church. They 
are, in spite of their ' 'liberality ■ ' in matters of 
belief, one of the smallest denominations and 
one which can not boast of growth. The most 
careful statistics show a decline of their num- 
bers in recent years. Yet, in the face of this, 
we are told, by some of the "liberals, M that 
the evangelical denominations, in order to en- 
joy prosperity, must decide to drop or ignore 
some of the teachings of the Word of God. 



302 History of Christianity. 

Missionary and Bible Societies. 

Beginnings in foreign missionary work were 
made during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, preeminently by the Moravians. The 
first Missionary society was organized, in 1792, 
by English Baptists (William Carey, 1761-1834). 
The London Missionary Society (Congregation - 
alist) was established in 1795, the Church 
Missionary Society (Episcopal), in 1799, the 
(English) Wesleyan Society, in 1800, and the 
American Board (Congregationalist), in 1810, at 
Boston. Since then, missionary enterprise has 
enjoyed a continuous and remarkable growth, 
particularly during the last three decades. The 
British and Foreign Bible Society was formed 
in 1804, and the Berlin Bible Society, in 1806. 
* * * 

The history of the conflict between the king- 
dom of light and the kingdom of darkness is 
full of interesting points. A soldier of the 
cross will find a knowledge of it of great value. 
The battle is not over; the great final conflict 
is, in fact, merely beginning, and preparations 
have been made for it, in both camps, Never 
before was the light as clear, or the Word of 
God understood as at present by ' 'those who 
diligently seek Him." On the other hand, the 
power of darkness was never as aggressive as 
now. The enemy, having made use of every 



Modem Liberalism. 303 

weapon at his command, has now put on the 
air of a scholar. He claims to have discovered 
that man is but "a tool-making animal " for 
whom the natural light of reason is sufficient. 
He holds that there is as much light in Bud- 
dhism and the other isms as in Christianity^ 
and that there is in fact no such thing as spir- 
itual darkness, and, hence, there should be no 
battle against it. He asserts that many of the 
Biblical books are not genuine. Yet, we are 
told that the Bible has nothing to fear from 
modern criticism. The Bible has indeed noth- 
ing to fear. It is the people who ought to fear 
lest they be led astray from the Word of God 
into unbelief, as many have been. While many 
may be deceived, there can not be any question 
as to the final outcome of the conflict. The 
question which should concern us is whether 
we ourselves are ' ' on the victory side, ' ' taking 
a decided stand with our Leader, and showing 
our colorsbefore the world, remembering, also, 
that a soul saved means a victory for God. 

Religious Statistics of the United States. 

ACCORDING TO DR. H. K. CARROLL (1902). 

Adventists 88,705 

Baptists 4,581,558 

Brethren (River) 4,739 

Brethren (Plymouth) 6,661 

Catholics 9,239,166 

Christians 109.278 



30 Jf History of Christianity. 

Christian Catholic (Dowie) 40,000 

Christian Scientists 48,930 

Church of God (Winebrenerian) . . . . 38,000 

Congregationalists 634,835 

Church of the New Jerusalem 7,892 

Disciples of Christ 1,179,541 

Dunkards 115,194 

Evangelical Association 104,087 

Friends 118,237 

German Evangelical Protestant 36,500. 

German Evangelical Synod 203,281 

Jews 143,000 

Lutherans 1,696,268 

Mennonites 58,728 

Methodists 5,966,500 

Moravians 15,225 

Mormons 343,824 

Presbyterians 1 605,015 

Protestant Episcopal 741,697 

Reformed „ 376,540 

Reformed Episcopal 9,283 

Salvation Army 22,534 

Schwenkf eldians 306 

Spiritualists 43,030 

Theosophical Society 3,000 

United Brethren 267,007 

United Evangelical Church 60,993 

Unitarians 71,000 

Universalists 52,873 

Waldenstromians 31,000 



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